19-year sentence for fatal rock beating (Sam Spital)

COMMENTARY BY SAM SPITAL, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY:

“On November 15, 2012, the UT San Diego news reported the defendant with a long history of drug related offenses in a revenge and repeated beating with a rock to the head of a 31 year old homeless man was sentenced to 19 Years to Life in State Prison for Second Degree Murder, and Threatening a Witness and Assault with a Deadly Weapon on another person. The defendant was represented by a Deputy Public Defender who alleged: ‘his life appears to have been eroded by drug use.’ When asked by the Judge what facts were in dispute, the article noted the defendant’s appointed counsel did not provide any specifics. This is a tragic example of the scourge of addiction and how even during and after incarceration, adequate treatment is misdirected or absent”