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Phoenix father gets 8 years for killing man who tried to get into his daughter's bathroom stall
NBC News 12 Phoenix ^ | December 16, 2019 | Alexa Block

Posted on 12/24/2019 4:50:19 AM PST by grundle

A Phoenix father was sentenced to eight years in prison for manslaughter after he beat a man to death outside a Phoenix convenience store in August 2018.

Melvin Harris III, 41, admitted to investigators he punched a man, later identified as Leon Armstrong, outside the QuikTrip on 19th and Dunlap avenues.

Harris had gone to the convenience store to pick up his daughter and her friends when Armstrong asked him for money in the parking lot, police say. After getting money from Harris, Armstrong went inside the QT store.

Harris's daughter and her friends came out of the store and told him that Armstrong tried to get into his daughter's bathroom stall inside.

Police documents say Harris went inside the store and "told a security guard he needed to take care of the situation, or (Harris) would do it himself."

Harris then approached Armstrong outside the store and punched him in the face. With Armstrong on the ground, Harris continued punching and kicking him before driving off, according to police documents.

Armstrong was taken to a hospital with brain swelling and a fractured nose. He was unresponsive and later died, police say.

Harris pleaded guilty to manslaughter.


TOPICS: Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: drugs; excons; manslaughter; prisontalk
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1 posted on 12/24/2019 4:50:19 AM PST by grundle
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To: grundle

To Kill a Mockingbird comes to mind.


2 posted on 12/24/2019 4:55:37 AM PST by Sacajaweau
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To: grundle

Nothing really wrong with Mr. Harris letting Mr. Armstrong know that he did not necessarily approve of his actions regarding gender confusion. However, Mr. Harris possibly emphasized his point a bit too strongly for the specific circumstances.

(in other words, he shouldn’t have beaten the shit out of the guy)


3 posted on 12/24/2019 4:58:14 AM PST by BobL (I drive a pickup truck to work because it makes me feel like a man.)
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To: Sacajaweau

Just TCB. I don’t see the problem.


4 posted on 12/24/2019 4:58:48 AM PST by MayflowerMadam
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To: grundle

He should have gone to trial. I doubt if a jury would have found him guilty.


5 posted on 12/24/2019 4:59:09 AM PST by ryderann
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To: BobL

Not many juries are gonna convict the guy IF his story is true.


6 posted on 12/24/2019 4:59:42 AM PST by ealgeone
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To: grundle

Harris pleaded guilty to manslaughter.>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Big mistake. He could have elected for a jury trial and gotten off.

The right jury would have sent him home to his family.


7 posted on 12/24/2019 5:00:44 AM PST by Candor7 ((Obama Fascism)http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2009/05/barack_obam_the_quintessentia_1.html))
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To: grundle

Need some ‘good ole’ boy reasoning.

The molester was found in the river wrapped in chains, and the Sheriff looked around and declared....

Just like old CD, stole more chain than he could swim with.

CASE CLOSED!!


8 posted on 12/24/2019 5:02:22 AM PST by xrmusn (6/98"HRC is the Grandmother that lures Hansel & Gretel to the pot")
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To: ryderann

Not enough known about the story,,,,did Armstrong deliberately try to harm the child or did he mistakenly go into the wrong bathroom? Some of those convenience marts only have one bathroom.


9 posted on 12/24/2019 5:03:50 AM PST by mdmathis6
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To: grundle

> Harris’s daughter and her friends came out of the store and told him that Armstrong tried to get into his daughter’s bathroom stall inside. <

The daughter was out of the store, and thus no longer in immanent danger. So the father was wrong to attack the deviant. He should have just called the cops, and pressed charges.


10 posted on 12/24/2019 5:03:54 AM PST by Leaning Right (I have already previewed or do not wish to preview this composition.)
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To: grundle

“After getting money from Harris, Armstrong went inside the QT store”

First of several mistakes by Mr. Harris. Like that famous sign in the park: “don’t feed the bears, it only makes them lazy.”


11 posted on 12/24/2019 5:13:32 AM PST by I cannot think of a name
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To: ealgeone

Nailed it.

No matter how much any of us agree with the outcome, he took it too far. And driving away from the scene only made it worse. Once he made his complaint/issue known to the security guard it was time to sit and wait for the law.


12 posted on 12/24/2019 5:15:36 AM PST by qaz123
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To: ealgeone

“Not many juries are gonna convict the guy IF his story is true.”

I know, I worry about that too...young girls have been known to make up stories to ruin the lives of men. Perhaps the guy said something that his daughter didn’t like, and so they figured they’d teach him a lesson.

As it is, at least from the story, I would vote to convict as I consider beating him while on the ground akin to shooting someone in the back, after they’ve already been shot in the front and are trying to flee. I normally give a wide latitude, but if a person doesn’t know when to stop, at least within reason, I don’t want him in our society.


13 posted on 12/24/2019 5:15:43 AM PST by BobL (I drive a pickup truck to work because it makes me feel like a man.)
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To: BobL

What??? Womyn lie???

As in claiming child abuse during a custody battle
As in telling the children that dad is a no good deadbeat
As in claiming rape due to buyer’s remorse

And yes I’m a female who is absoutely disgusted by some of these female actions from the matriarchy, errr, “child” support system to affirmative action.


14 posted on 12/24/2019 5:19:13 AM PST by AbolishCSEU (Amount of "child" support paid is inversely proportionate to mother's actual parenting of children)
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To: grundle

I think people have an unrealistic idea - from the movies - about the kind of punishment a human body can take. I doubt the guy intended to kill, but that’s just how the beating panned out.

Meanwhile, one punch killings in NYC, out of the clear blue, are being punished with a slap on the wrist. One Irishman punches another in Queens. The recipient ends up in the morgue:

https://www.irishcentral.com/news/danny-mcgee-family-laws-one-punch-death
[Last Friday at Queens Criminal Court, O’Brien pleaded guilty and was sentenced to six months in prison. He tearfully expressed his sorrow to the McGee family, and will return to court in January to begin serving his sentence.]

The charge to which he pleaded guilty? Misdemeanor assault. If the case had gone to trial, the perp faced a maximum of 1 year in prison.


15 posted on 12/24/2019 5:22:33 AM PST by Zhang Fei (My dad had a Delta 88. That was a car. It was like driving your living room.)
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To: MayflowerMadam

He pleaded guilty. It is quite a different story then I was expecting. I thought the guy was going to be in the stall with the daughter but the guy never made it in. The guy who pleaded guilty should have just called the police as no danger was going on at the time. Or at least let a jury figure it out.


16 posted on 12/24/2019 5:28:09 AM PST by napscoordinator (Trump/Hunter, jr for President/Vice President 2016)
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To: BobL

[I know, I worry about that too...young girls have been known to make up stories to ruin the lives of men. Perhaps the guy said something that his daughter didn’t like, and so they figured they’d teach him a lesson.]


Kids, and people, in general, make up stories all the time, either for personal benefit or over a grudge. We’ve gone from doubting kids 100% to believing them 100% on these kinds of stories. There’s probably a happy medium somewhere in between, but we’ve flipped from one extreme to another. The sad reality is that kids lack much of a conscience, which is why they were singled out by the Khmer Rouge to conduct many of its mass killings. They were stone killers who would do things that many adult Khmer Rouge members could not bring themselves to do.


17 posted on 12/24/2019 5:30:42 AM PST by Zhang Fei (My dad had a Delta 88. That was a car. It was like driving your living room.)
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To: grundle

I’ve been called to Jury duty twice in the last 6 months. Both times the case has been settled before trial. I hope I get a case like this so I can nullify this BS.


18 posted on 12/24/2019 5:34:22 AM PST by Starstruck (I'm usually sarcastic. Deal with it.)
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To: grundle

None of us was there.


19 posted on 12/24/2019 5:39:55 AM PST by Rannug (When you're dead, you're dead. Until then fight with everything you have.l)
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To: grundle

never plead guilty to that... always face a jury... i vote to acquit every time.


20 posted on 12/24/2019 5:44:49 AM PST by teeman8r (Armageddon won't be pretty, but it's not like it's the end of the world.)
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