More details about the murder of Eric Hambrick emerged last week when a transcript of his killer's sentencing was released. Arkel Coleman pleaded guilty to manslaughter in November after he was indicted for first degree murder in Hambrick's death. Hambrick was a MEMA employee and a fixture in the Mississippi Opera and First Baptist Church choir. Coleman claimed that Hambrick asked him to trade sex for money. He said he hit him in response to the alleged proposition.
Hambrick attended Thursday night choir practice on May 28, 2015. He
unfortunately stopped at the Waffle House on High Street at 10:30 PM.
The 19 year-old Arkel Coleman thought the 52 year-old man would be easy
prey and beat him with his fists. Mr. Hambrick fell to the ground and
sustained more injuries when his head violently struck the pavement.
His family removed him from life support a few days later. Arkel
Coleman and his accomplice, Sherderwick Anderson, removed a ring that
they fancied from a dying Eric Hembrick's finger. Police arrested the
pair within a few days.
Coleman was represented by Ali Shamsid-dunce. The attorney once clerked for Judge Green. The transcript reveals what would have been Coleman's defense if the case had gone to trial.
Coleman told Judge Green that he dropped out of high school after eleventh grade and produced a son when he was eighteen years-old. He lived with his grandmother since his mother suffered from leukemia. He was 19 years-old when he called Hambrick.
Assistant District Attorney Sue Perry told the court that she was allowing him to plead guilty to manslaughter even though it was first degree murder. She said Coleman punched Hambrick in the head and caused his death. However, Coleman said Hambrick came on to him:
A. I had a couple words with the individual, and I punched him.Ms. Perry recommended that Coleman serve 15 years in prison but asked the court to suspend five years of the prison sentence. She also recommended that Coleman be placed under probation for five years upon his release from prison but Judge Green shortened it to three years. Judge Green also ordered him to enroll in a GED program and mandatory anger management. Judge Green also apparently bought the defendant's story hook, line, and sinker:
Q. And when you punched him, how many times did you punch him, once or more than once?
A. Once.
Q. Were you all in a fight?
A. No, ma'am, it wasn't a fight.
Q: Well, how did you end up punching him?
A: He made a proposition toward me.
Q: Say it again.
A: He made a proposition toward me.
Q: What was the proposition?
A: Sex for money.
I'm also going to require mandatory anger management. I can't make anybody pass the test, but I can certainly require that you enroll in that because you'll need to come back out with some skills to be able to get a job. Normally people that come out of jail without a high school degree, they end up going right back in.
And I don't know what happened exactly at the Waffle House, but it made you angry enough. It could have been something that would have made anybody angry, but it made you angry enough where you ended up taking someone's life, and there is no justification for that.
But if you could have controlled your anger on that day, you might would be in a totally different place today. Sometimes you just have to walk away. And you chose not to and someone died that day, and you have to be held responsible for that. Mr. Coleman, you're 19 years old?
A. Yes, ma'am.
Q. A lot of people go to jail and come back out and live productive lives. So, let·s hope that youColeman is currently serving his sentence.
can do that because not only did the victim die, but a part of you died that day too.
Kingfish note: So..... since Hambrick had cash if Coleman's story is to um, be believed, why didn't Coleman take the cash as well as the ring? If it's true, then why isn't a certain community screaming for a hate crime prosecution?
It is rather interesting that the transcript suddenly appeared in the court file on March 17. The sentencing took place in November. The media, including yours truly, missed it until this website checked the file and published the sentence two weeks ago.
41 comments:
$20 says he could neither spell nor define proposition.
There was a book written several years ago about a promising black quarterback from Greenwood who killed a dude and got a light sentence based on a similar claim. The sleazebag defense attorney bragged about "putting the queer" on the victim as a commonplace tactic.
Sickening beyond belief.
Kind of like how carjackers will say the victim owed them money or used it to buy drugs.
Not defending Coleman, but the facts reported in the CL differ from your account Kingfish. The CL cites a surveillance video showing that Hambrick and Coleman were in some kind of conversation. Hambrick steps back from Coleman, then Coleman strikes Hambrick in the face, Hambrick falls and the other suspect takes a ring. That hardly seems to constitute 1st Degree (premeditated and intentional) murder (1 punch ?).
The Surveillance had no audio, so the words spoken are objectively unknown. Coleman claims Hambrick propositioned him for sex. If this is true, given the stark homophobic sentiments of many young men in Mississippi, I can see why Coleman would get violently upset at Hambrick and punch him. But one punch hardly constitutes 1st degree murder.
This was an unfortunate and tragic situation, and I wish Coleman had better conflict resolution skills and sensitivity, but it appears he did not murder Hambrick in the midst of a robbery. That is why the sentence is but 10 years, along with anger management and GED counseling. Judge Green is seeing the situation for what the evidence shows it is, a young man with a difficult lot in life who was presented with a situation where he needed more maturity and discipline to respond productively. This was hardly a cold blooded, intentional killing for a ring. If that was the case, are you saying Kingfish that two "thugs" hell-bent on robbing someone planned to do so with only one punch, and then leave cash in a wallet and take only a ring?
Guess you forgot about the robbery.
Kingfish, in a comment to your post earlier this month, you indicated that the entire incident was captured on Waffle House security camera(s). Is there any way to review that video? It would seem that it might speak to the credibility of the killer's version of events, one way or the other.
The dead cannot give any comments or defend himself. He's dead molding in the grave. Thugs will lie to get a lighter sentence.
Justice in this case does not exist in this case. If full justice was to be served than immediately Arkel Coleman should have a lethal injection administered. I hope the judge & the defense attorney face bad karma for such injustice. Meanwhile, stay the Hell out of Hinds county. This also demonstrates that all these baby mama's raising litters of kids have been ill served by all this liberal social giveaway programs.
Moving this from other blog post and revising. Thanks Kingfish!
@ 11:08am It is still a travesty that this punk is not getting the max and that a Hate Crime isn't being added to the charge. If he 'needed more maturity and discipline to respond productively' then he must have hate in his heart for gay people. I'd like to know what the GBLTQ community thinks?
So GBLTQ community, if this is the case, where is the outrage on the sentence? Manslaughter carries a max of 20. This young man, who is clearly a bigot to boot, is only getting 10. Can you say Hate Crime? Where are the protesters at Ali Shamsideen's office? He probably perpetuated this hoax to get his client off with a plea bargain.
3 things are at play here:
1. Seems that only conservative bloggers are concerned about equal justice for Hambrick
2. Judge Green doesn't value a gay person's life as much as others.
3. GBLTQ community is too scared to call out a democrat when clearly justice is not being served. Even if Hambrick wasn't gay or didn't proposition him, the fact that Ali Shamsideen, Judge Green and the DA are willing to devalue a life using a 'gay' narrative is a horrible ploy that should be called out.
Were propositioning someone for sex, someone who had exactly zero interest in accepting were grounds for execution...most males wouldn't make it out of their teens. One can't execute the Mormon Missionaries knocking on one's door because one believes their religion is a bunch of bunk and it offends one's sensibilities. Can't kill a panhandler because one finds it offensive that he/she hasn't a job. Car salesperson or real estate agent can't kill a prospective customer because an offensive low ball offer. Not really sure about why this is different.
Thank goodness he didn't enter in a voluntary contract with another adult for a ziploc bag of dried plant matter the government has banned. Then he might have done some real time.
The "one continuous action" rule for capital murders has evolved into something entirely unintended by its creators. If one goes into a convenience store with a shotgun, shoots the clerk immediately, and then empties the register, the rule operates to make that capital murder. Capital murder's most frequent form is when a death occurs when someone is committing one of five felonies, including robbery. There are other types of capital murder, though. In its most common form, an intrepid defense lawyer could argue that the murder took place before a robbery, making it simple murder and not capital. The one continuous transaction rule solves this by making a defendant responsible for a death even if it occurs before the property is taken. It must simply be part of one continuous transaction. This sounds simple, but it has expanded non-criminal events into death penalty crimes. For instance, if one gets into a car accident that is not your fault, you can still be charged with capital murder if the driver of the other vehicle dies. Here's how: if one walks over to the other car and decide that you really like the unconscious driver's tie and take it, you have committed a robbery. Because the driver dies it elevates the robbery to capital murder. I think that shouldn't be the law, but it is. So, Hambrick's killer committed capital murder if he is criminally responsible for the actions of the robber (which is an entirely different lecture). As long as we have this rule, deaths can occur increasingly remotely from some other crime and be treated as capital murders. This kid, just like the hypothetical tie-thief, should've gotten the death penalty under the current state of the law.
Can't continue to just blame Judge Green - although she was not bound to accept it, this plea bargain was developed and agreed to by our county's prosecutor, District Attorney Robert S Smith
@11:29
Judge Green devalued the life of a gay person with this sentence? The DA recommended the sentence. Judge Green merely suggested 3 years probation rather than 5. At any rate, how does this justify a "devaluing of gay life" by Judge Green? The DA allowed for a plea deal, so the evidence didn't support the 1str degree murder charge, at least in the DA's estimation.
Also, the hate crime piece is interesting, though I don't think that many in MS would support homosexuals as as a "protected class" in terms of civil rights protections. This would have to be a federal investigation. Do you really think Trump's justice dept. would go that route?
@11:33,
I don't think 10 years in the pen constitutes getting off for the killing of Hambrick. To be clear, I'm not defending Coleman's actions. I agree with you that he was not justified in punching (nor killing) Hambrick simply because Hanbrick "propositioned" him. I just questioned whether the evidence supported a 1st degree murder charge. Apparently the DA didn't think so, and thus allowed for the plea deal.
This travesty horrified me because it devalues the life and memory of a kind, gentle man. I knew him for years. In my opinion the murderer is lying and his representatives should be censured for this.
Looks like Arkel Coleman is a raging homophobe.
Somehow I don't think Coleman will find it advantageous to spurn the advances of his new prison boyfriends.
1. What does it mean when you say he "called Hambrick"?
2. How come nobody ever noticed this claim before?
no jury seated in Green's courtroom would have convicted. so many of you assume you get rational juries in the First Judicial District of Hinds County, and fact it is uncommon for that to happen.
an ADA in Green's courtroom is in an impossible predicament with facts like these [assuming the surveillance facts are true].
Right, there's nothing that gets me in the mood more than Waffle House after choir practice. I usually prefer little black boys.
This guy has had a year and 10 months to come up with an alibi and this is the best he could come up with. I am sure he has an equally plausible excuse for removing and stealing this dying man's ring.
"Somehow I don't think Coleman will find it advantageous to spurn the advances of his new prison boyfriends."
March 22, 2017 at 12:59 PM
I hope he DOES spurn their advances, so that they'll knock his teeth out (in order to pimp him out at both ends), and force him to take estrogen, so that he'll grow breasts.
Ummm-look on Eric's facebook site, his daughter posts there pretty often. He dated women at FCBJ.
I'll choose to think the thugs were lying sacks of crap trying to use homophobia as a defense against murder.
Much of Jackson's black community is virulently anti-homosexual so Coleman's ploy to avoid the murder conviction makes perfect sense.
Convenient story. Funny thing is, the thug element is very often into the "down low" lifestyle. It's a major reason Jackson's HIV rate is among the highest in the nation.
Wasn't Hambrick robbed as well? That kind of x's out the manslaughter via proposition defense, doesn't it?
Coleman should have started with,"See what had happened was..."
God'll Cut You Down by Safran. Entertaining book that this discussion reminds me of. Ghosts of Richard Barrett. This may become a common defense. Or already is.
This story says the two men confessed following their arrest, shortly after the crime. Do the confessions mention a sexual proposition, which Coleman talked about during the plea hearing?
http://www.wapt.com/article/2-charged-in-beating-that-killed-mema-worker/2093907
Remember the 'murder' in Madison two years ago when the black JSU professor was killed by a young black dude who was at the prof's house? He claimed the prof was a homosexual and came on to him.
Are we left to assume, here, that this could not possibly be true since the deceased was a First Baptist Church (notice the absence of MB) choir member and a white man?
"Convenient story. Funny thing is, the thug element is very often into the "down low" lifestyle. It's a major reason Jackson's HIV rate is among the highest in the nation."
March 22, 2017 at 4:05 PM
Even more strange, is that virulent homophobia and "The Down-low Lifestyle" are not mutually-exclusive.
I remember, at our gym, an older guy who was a security guard, somewhere. He had a necklace with a pendant that we all thought was a mushroom. On the gym floor, he was WILDLY homophobic: talking about killing gays, and all sorts of crazy stuff.
Then, we found out that the mushroom was actually a portrait of Queen Nefertiti of Egypt, and the "diamond" in the mushroom was actually Nefertiti's eye. About that time, we ALSO found out that in the locker room areas, he was mackin' on some of the younger bodybuilders (they were not amused).
After that, we started calling him 'Queen Nefertiti'.
The killer is a Christian Right wing extremist!
He so hates homosexuals that he murders them for Christ.
Taliban/Christian
That's nonsense of course...but religious fervor fuels hatred from an early age.
People should affirmatively teach kids homosexuals are not evil.
6:14
So, what you are saying is that a homosexual cannot be an evil person?
You seem to be saying that there is moral equivalence between ISIS and Baptists. Is that what you believe? You must be a rabid Baptistaphobe.
With RSS and Green readily accepting the LGBTQ community should be very worried that this Coleman defense gets used by Jackson's black criminal class as a new ready alibi for crimes and violence against LGBTQ.
Can somebody fill me in on the particulars of the incident? Were "The Offended" heading into the Pancake Establishment? Or, having finished their meal, were they on the way to their car?
Alternately, were "The Offended" just out strolling the neighborhood, pausing to linger in the scenic parking lot of the Pancake Establishment?
Does the camera footage show who approached whom?
11:01 --
The football player's name was Handy Campbell.
There's a fascinating account of it in a powerful book, Confederacy of Silence. I recommend it to everyone.
6:50
The answer is No.
I didn't say that....so the rest of your brain damaged tripe is just that.
Golly, 8:52! I went to Amazon, and started reading that book. The Author is totally the kind of Yankee we dread having move down here. At least that's how it's seeming, so far. He's what you'd expect from The University of Pennsylvania, really. But anyway, creepy author aside, the story is interesting. Thanks for recommending it!
If you assault a person because you perceive him/her to be black, homosexual, catholic, Jewish or disabled you have more than likely committed what the feds call a 'hate crime'.
Whether death results is rather incidental to the initial crime of assault. A hate crime doesn't have to result in death, but, in this case, did.
So, if that's the clowns defense, it should have failed on its face.
If its a fact (can't be proved) that this yoot was approached for sex, that's not a crime unless an offer of exchange were made.
My guess is these two black tools were hopped up and thought it would be fun to deck a white dude in the parking lot and jump back in their big-rimmed ride and cruise, laughing. Oh, wait, let's get that ring!
Once again, the common denominators here MUST include the name Robert S. Smith.
put that POS on trial for capitol murder, which is what this crime is. then if the POS CHOOSES HE CAN GET ON THE WITNESS STAND and say" i didn't mean to kill him". that alone will get the POS a lesser included jury instruction for manslaughter. then let the jury decide.
Feeling pretty naive here. Do homosexuals proposition an unknown person in a parking lot without even a pretense of getting to know someone? Would the victim have assumed the man was a "prostitute" when approached in the parking lot? Guess I do not understand these transactions very well, if this is what happened.
Anything on the JFP/Donner website and/or socials about this?
Messic: The standard answer I usually get when I axe what he considers a stupid question is this: "Go look up the damned answer to your own question!"
Of course since your post is critical of his most unfavorite local personality, it skated right on thru.
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