A New York City judge sentenced a former Wake Forest University basketball assistant coach to three years probation without jail time for the death of a Florida tourist.
Jamill C. Jones, 37, was sentenced Thursday for a third-degree assault in the August 2018 murder of Sandor Szabo, 35, in Queens. He had faced a maximum of one year in prison.
Judge Joanne B. Watters explained in her ruling that a prison sentence “would only serve to punish Mr. Jones”, adding “it is my opinion that Mr. Jones is sorry”.
Watters cited the “positive impact Mr. Jones has had on his community,” which according to his attorney, Eric Renfroe, included mentoring young black women without parents.
The ruling came as a shock to Szabo’s family, including his mother Donna Kent, who delivered a poignant impact statement at the sentencing hearing, which was made during a video conference after months of delays due to the pandemic.
“He will always be a murderer, a coward,” Kent said in the statement. “No parent should have to endure this type of torture.”
Jamill C. Jones, 37, was sentenced to probation on Thursday for a third-degree assault in the August 2018 murder of Sandor Szabo, 35, in Queens
The ruling came as a shock to Szabo’s family, including his mother Donna Kent (center at trial), who delivered a poignant impact statement at the sentencing hearing.
Current New York law only allows misdemeanor assault charges in one-hit cases where prosecutors can simply show an intention to hurt, rather than an intention to kill.
Kent, as well as District Attorney Kirk A. Sendlein, who prosecuted the case, asked Judge Watters to impose the maximum possible sentence of one year in jail, citing the fact that a homicide was charged with a misdemeanor.
Watters acknowledged that it was an “unusual case” when he issued his sentencing verdict. In addition to probation, he sentenced Jones to 1,500 hours of community service and a $ 1,000 fine.
Jones, wiping away his tears, said in sentencing that “my actions were never to cause this” and that “it was never to bring this family up despite the pain they suffered.”
The sentence marks an unsatisfactory conclusion for Sazbo’s mother and other family members, who have traveled to New York City for more than a dozen hearings, as well as for the jury trial that concluded in February.
The tragic case unfolded almost two years ago, on what should have been a day of celebration for the victim’s family.
Szabo was a digital marketing executive visiting New York City from Florida for his sister’s wedding when he was killed around 1:40 a.m. on August 5, 2018.
Szabo was a digital marketing executive visiting New York City from Florida for his sister’s wedding when he was killed around 1:40 a.m. on August 5, 2018.
The never-before-known altercation between Szabo and Jones took place in Long Island City, where Szabo was leaving the wedding, and he may have believed that the SUV Jones was in was an Uber he had requested.
At trial, Jones took the position and collapsed when he described the confrontation, which he described as a case of self-defense.
“I have never been arrested before this case,” Jones told the jury, according to PIX 11. “I have never had a drink in my life.”
Jones testified that he was riding in his girlfriend’s SUV when someone hit the rear window of the vehicle.
‘The next thing you heard was a loud’ boom! “and the rear windshield started to fall off,” Jones told the jury. He said he jumped, confronting Szabo.
Prosecutors never located the girlfriend or called her to testify, and her SUV was never examined by police.
Jones is seen during the trial, where he collapsed on the stand while testifying.
Surveillance video also captured Jone’s SVU walking away from the scene of the attack
Jones released a photo of a vehicle with a broken rear window to police four days after the incident, but Szabo’s family maintains that the window was undamaged in Queens.
At the sentencing hearing, Szabo’s brother Dominik Szabo scoffed at the idea that his brother had broken Jones’s window, noting that his brother’s hands were completely scraped as he died in a coma while hospitalized.
Jones admitted that he chased Sandor Szabo and hit him in the face near the opposite corner of the street, even when Szabo appeared to be backing off.
Jones said Szabo had his fists clenched and was raising his left hand. He said he wanted to defend his girlfriend in the SUV.
“When I see the girl and her face was on his lap and I see him on the passenger side, I say, ‘I’m going to put myself between him and whatever comes that way,'” Jones testified.
Szabo fell to the ground where his head hit the pavement and he passed out, prosecutors said.
Jones and his girlfriend fled the scene, and it emerged at the trial that hours later he called the girlfriend’s cousin, a New York police detective, who advised him to turn himself in.
Instead, Jones fled the state and only gave up four days later. after New York Police released a surveillance video showing him on the scene.
Szabo was vice president of sales at What If Media Group, a digital media company
Szabo’s mother, Donna Kent (above) has been dedicated to justice in the case, making trips to New York City from her North Carolina home for each court appearance.
Taken to a local hospital in critical condition, Szabo was pronounced dead, but he was kept on life support for a day so that his organs could be donated.
The New York City medical examiner ruled that Szabo’s death was the result of a homicide, and listed the official cause of death as “blunt force injury to the head with brain injury.”
At the trial, the New Jersey man who received Szabo’s heart went to court to show his support for Szabo’s mother, Donna Kent.
Kent has campaigned for changes to the law in New York and elsewhere, saying New York City is experiencing an “epidemic” of one-hit killings that can only be charged with misdemeanors.
There have been many other cases of ‘cowardly beating’ in New York in recent years, including the death of Gaelic soccer player Danny McGee, whose killer Steven O’Brien was sentenced to six months in prison in January.
Jones resigned from his coach role at Wake Forrest in April last year, after spending eight months on administrative leave.
Szabo was vice president of sales at What If Media Group, a digital media company.
“He was always optimistic, positive, kind and caring,” the company said in a Facebook post. ‘It was fun to be with, interesting and always interested. He was a very good person.
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