[moodyskeptic]

Flame away, little men.

[Salvation]

I don't think Junta should have been convicted either.

The kids in the practice match who were getting knocked around outside the rules were who Junta was defending, not himself.

Yes, I'm a former Little League mom.

[jackbill]

I suspect that we are fortunate that both of these guys are off the streets.

My first impression was that Costin was a jerk. This has pretty much been proven with a look at his past rap-sheet.

As for Junta, I suspect that he went way too far - and knew it. Or, as when he beat the hell out of his wife, he was just uncontrollable. Either way, a few years in the pokie may wise him up. And then again, it might not.

[wattsmag2]

I agree. Too much was made of the defendants size, and too little made of the deceased prior conduct.

[HighWheeler]

A panel of unanimous jurors from, of all places, Massachusetts, disagrees with you 100% - and they were all convinced beyond any shred of reasonable doubt. I will admit they had a huge advantage over you, they were actually there to see and hear the whole testimony, and weren't armchair quarterbacking with only your selected portion of information.

[sheik yerbouty]

The late Mr. Costin had "little man syndrome".

[Vinomori]

Let's admit that beating a man to death is always avoidable.

[Young Werther]

My mother was right. You walk away. You don't fight.

I was accosted just once as a grown up. He was smaller than I and he acted in the typical small man manner. When he rushed me, I grabbed him by the lapels and lifted him off the ground and slammed him against cigarette machine. I then turned to the pizza parlor employee and asked her to call the police since I was making a citizen's arrest.

When the police arrived he was drunk enough,(or doped up since he was found to be in possession of grass), to spout out that he didn't like me because I was wearing an Air Force flight jacket, (just released from the Air Force).He spent the night in the drunk tank and the proprietor made me a new pizza.

There is absolutely no reason to meet force with more force than is necessary to control the situation. My Air Force hand to hand training had allowed me to turn his energy against him. Yes I could have used one of the moves that would have collapsed his wind pipe or broken his nose but that wasn't necessary. I think that this was the main lesson taught to "Cricket"

[stryker]

Most of the posts indicate the posters didn't follow the trial and don't know the facts of the case. Junta only saw Costa one time, and that was in full hockey gear. Costa was taller than Junta, so Costa didn't look smaller than Junta at all, but quite larger, considering the hockey gear. Costa clearly started the first fight and inflicted serious injury on Junta. Junta left the building, then began to worry about his son and friends being left in the building with a seemingly crazy man (and Costa had a history of mental disorders that did not come into evidence). Because of that worry, he reentered the building and was blindsided with a sucker punch immediately upon entering. Costa jumped on his back, he threw Costa over his shoulder and fell to his knees and gave him three quick punches. Only in that short span could he have judged Costa's true weight as less than his own. On the stand, Junta came off as very credible, as did the witnesses for him, and even a number of witnesses the state called that testified to only three quick punches. Only a couple of hysterical old ladies testified to the slamming of the head into the floor and the 10-20 punches. The problems with the trial were that the defense lawyer did not bring out that Junta never saw Costa out of the hockey gear, that the defense never called a medical expert on Junta's knee injuries to demonstrate once he had fallen he could not get up, so that he had to end the fight then or Costa would have gotten up and kicked him to death, and finally, that the judge did not let in evidence as to Costa's long criminal and mental health backgrounds. This jury is beating its' head now that it is out of sequestration and knows all the facts, I would imagine. I was surprised at the court's sentence, but then again, the defense lawyer missed the important points.

[BJungNan]

Flame away, little men.

I won't flame you for your post. I think the sentence this man received was way too harsh. He did not set out to kill the guy. It is an unfortunate situation and from what I have read, the guy that died was not completely innocent.

There is something else going on in this sentence that has more to do with popular culture than with circumstances. The guy now sitting in jail fits a profile many in the PC crowd don't like and that is enough to satisfy them that he should be in jail.

[57 Corvette]

If the lamesteam Media covered it, you can bet their bias was included. I have never seen them honestly cover both sides of a story.