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Teenager sentenced in 'savage' beating
By CARY DAVIS, Times Staff Writer NEW PORT RICHEY -- Dusty Stamer stood before a judge Friday and offered one tearful apology after another. He was sorry, he said, for the brutal beating of 18-year-old Israel Baryeshua in March 1999 and sorry he let down his parents and the "sweet young lady" he plans to marry. "I was young then," said Stamer, now 19. "I was doing things I shouldn't have been doing.' Stamer's statement of contrition was commendable, prosecutor Tom Stathopoulos said, but words don't change the past. "He's made his bed," Stathopoulos said. "Now he has to lie in it." For the next 12 years, Stamer's bed will be in a Florida prison. That was the sentence handed down on Friday by Pasco-Pinellas Circuit Judge William Webb, who called Stamer's crime "brutal and savage." The sentence far exceeded the minimum of five years of imprisonment called for by state guidelines. Stamer faced a maximum of 15 years in prison. A jury convicted Stamer last month of aggravated battery but acquitted him on the more serious charge of attempted second-degree murder. The case centered on a fight that began when Baryeshua punched Stamer, then 16, in the face in a moonlit field west of U.S. 19 in Hudson, where a group of teens had gathered to drink alcohol. Stamer went down, and Baryeshua threw more punches. At least two of Stamer's friends joined the fight. They took turns punching and kicking Baryeshua. One broke a beer bottle over Baryeshua's head. Then Stamer got up and got his licks in, repeatedly kicking and punching Baryeshua. When it was over, Stamer had minor injuries. Baryeshua, who was left semiconscious and bleeding on the side of Sea Pines Drive in Hudson, was airlifted to a St. Petersburg hospital with life-threatening injuries. He recovered and testified at Stamer's trial. The attack on Baryeshua ended a night of mayhem across Hudson on March 15, 1999. Earlier that night, authorities say, Stamer and three friends -- Richard "Punk Dog" Thibodeau, Elijah Horner and Ryan Sullivan -- attacked a couple at a Lil' Champ convenience store. A 55-year-old man who was punched in the face suffered a heart attack and had to be revived by electric shock. Authorities say the teens also beat and robbed a homeless man who wouldn't buy them beer at a Circle K. Prosecutors say Stamer bragged about those attacks in front of Baryeshua, who became angry and started a fight. Thibodeau and Horner have been convicted and sentenced to prison for their roles in the attacks. Sullivan is awaiting trial. Stamer served a year in jail for the attack on the couple at the Lil' Champ. Prosecutors dropped charges against him in connection with the Circle K incident.
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From today's Pasco Times |
