WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) - A man who was convicted of killing a 77-year-old man in a Palm Beach County parking lot has died in prison, according to recently released prison documents.
The Department of Corrections said Danny Michael Harrigan, 51, died of natural causes on Feb. 2 at Lake Correctional Institute west of Orlando..
Harrigan has served one year of a life sentence for the “totally unprovoked” attack Sept. 11, 2018, on Bernard Fairman, The Palm Beach Post reported. Fairman died six days later.
Harrigan’s mother told the newspaper in an email that her son was found in septic shock and taken to a hospital. Doctors could not save him.
The mother continues to maintain her son’s innocence, as she did throughout the 2019 trial.
Jurors found him guilty of first-degree murder, burglary with assault, robbery and aggravated battery on an elderly person. He was found not guilty on an additional count of battery on an elderly person.
Court records said Harrigan “savagely” beat Fairman in apparent robbery attempt.
During the attack, Harrigan dropped the man on the ground head first, the newspaper reported. A couple tried to intervene but Harrigan robbed the woman of her purse, broke her finger and punched her husband.
Harrigan was arrested more than three weeks later.
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