JACKSON, Miss. (AP) - A man who admitted to taking part in a fatal attack on another man outside a Jackson restaurant will spend less than 10 years in prison and was ordered to take five years of anger management classes.
Friends of the victim, 52-year-old Eric Hambrick, said they are appalled at the sentence.
Arkel Coleman, now 21, pleaded guilty to manslaughter, The Clarion-Ledger reported (https://on.thec-l.com/2nApDaK ).
The attack took place May 28, 2015, outside a Waffle House near downtown. Hambrick died in a hospital two days later.
Hinds County Circuit Judge Tomie Green sentenced Coleman to 10 years in prison, with credit for time served. The district attorney dropped a strong-arm robbery charge.
Another man, Shrederrick Anderson, is charged in the case but has not gone to trial.
“It’s a travesty. You would think someone would receive a longer penalty for what they did,” Greg Flynn, who worked with Hambrick at the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency, told the newspaper. “Human lives aren’t valued as much as they used to be.”
Hambrick handled contracts and purchasing at MEMA. Friends said he loved to sing, performing with First Baptist Church, the Mississippi Opera, the Mississippi Chorus, the Metro Male Chorus and local theater. He also loved Waffle House.
Authorities said that a week later, Coleman, who was 19 at the time, and Anderson, who was 18, told Jackson police they had beaten and robbed Hambrick that night.
Because the slaying took place during another felony, the teenagers could have been charged with capital murder. Instead, each was charged with murder and strong-arm robbery.
Sherry Boyer, executive director of the Mississippi Chorus, called Hambrick “a very generous, gentle giant. He was so kind…. The guys that whacked him in the head - if they had asked him for his ring, he would have given that to them. And he would have given them the shirt off his back, too.”
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