He who steals my cell phone steals gold.
Posted on 07/11/2005 1:08:03 PM PDT by Dog Gone
WACO — A man has been sentenced to 99 years in prison for stealing a cell phone.
Glenn Alvin Reed, 31, was convicted of robbery Thursday for stealing a cellular phone from a man's truck last fall and then hitting him several times when he demanded its return.
Jurors, who deliberated about 15 minutes, convicted Reed as a habitual criminal because he has prior felony convictions for injury to an elderly person and robbery. That bumped the minimum sentence from five to 25 years for Reed, who rejected a 15-year plea bargain offer from prosecutors.
Reed also has 15 misdemeanor convictions dating to 1991, including 12 criminal trespassing convictions.
Reed, who testified during his trial against the wishes of his court-appointed attorneys, frequently went into profanity-laced tirades and told jurors he didn't care if they gave him life in prison.
"There's things I choose to do, like, if I go in a store and choose to take a Snicker's bar," Reed testified. "If you catch me, you catch me. If not, I'm going to go home and eat it up and go on about my business, dog."
Four years ago, Reed walked up behind retired Texas Ranger Capt. Bob Prince outside the McLennan County courthouse annex and said he was robbing him. Prince decided not to shoot Reed because he could tell he was unarmed, the former Ranger testified during Reed's cell phone robbery trial.
Prince easily took Reed into custody, and he later was sentenced to two years in prison, according to court records.
Reed made an obscene hand gesture toward Prince as the former Ranger left the witness stand.
I love how the title "forgets" to mention the assault.
Stupid is as stupid does. It's great they got this thug off the street.
So it takes thirteen minutes to do double elimiantion rock-papers-sissors to pick the jury foreman, one minute to vote, and then one minute to walk back. Gotta love Texas
Can you hear me now?
Good jury.
He who steals my cell phone steals gold.
What a complete idiot. He deserves the sentence he got.
Next time, he should stick to stealing classified documents and destroying them.
Jury foreman: "Okay, everyone. Now that we're seated, how does 99 years sound to everyone?"
Juror 1: "Yep."
Jurors 2-11: "Yeehaw!"
Hmmm. My question for the editor of the paper is why the opening parapgraph didn't ask the question as to how it was that this savage was on the streets at all? Why hasn't he already been sentenced to 99 years for the dozen plus crimes that he has already committed?
All I can say is thank goodness that fellow in the truck had a cell phone to steal so the people of Texas could finally put this vermin away for good!
I hope you enjoy prison, dog.
This guy is unrepentant and a career criminal. Nevertheless it is wrong to sentence someone to life in jail for stealing a cell phone and hitting someone. He deserves to go to jail, but the punishment does not fit the crime here, and I think that's unjust. Life in prison should be reserved for murderers, traitors, kidnappers, terrorists or rapists.
Many will disagree and that's okay.
I guess the jury wasn't swayed by his obvious charm. LOL.
This is why they should bring back caning. They should inflict physical pain on some criminals. It's the only thing they understand. Life if physical.
25 years in prison at the expense of the taxpayers @ 25K a year is $625,000 for a $300 cell phone? Granted the guy should be off the street, bus isn't there something cheaper we could use. How about multiple canings over a few years to make the guy regret and remember?
I'm sure the "liberals", the ACLU and Amnesty Intl. would love it
Note to self... Profanity-laced tirades do not help sway a jury.
There's nothing like reading and posting on FR using a Treo!
The only reason this guy would say something like this to a jury is because he wants to be in prison.
Seriously.
He's evidently more comfortable there than on the outside.
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