A Florida judge has sentenced a young man to 45 years in prison for his involvement in the deadly 2022 tire-iron beating of a man while he was serving probation.
Judge Elizabeth Jack handed down the sentence to 21-year-old Savonne Morrison for his role in the killing of 49-year-old Jeffrey Chapman in Clearwater.
Morrison was 18 when Chapman was killed and was only four months into probation for a carjacking conviction at the time of the attack.
According to the Tampa Bay Times, Morrison received the lengthy prison term in court on Monday following an extended hearing.
Morrison’s parents submitted letters that were addressed during the proceeding, WFLA reported, with his father arguing that his son had been misunderstood.
“Throughout this case, it has been heartbreaking to watch my son be portrayed as someone that he is not,” his father said.
Chapman’s death followed a call from Morrison’s friend, Jermaine Bennett, who allegedly asked Morrison to help assault his ex-girlfriend’s new boyfriend.
After Morrison and Bennett were unable to find the intended target, the pair drank alcohol and used cocaine while driving around St. Petersburg.
Savonne Morrison was sentenced to 45 years behind bars on Monday inside a Florida courtroom
Chapman was brutally beaten to death while riding his bike near Clearwater Beach, he is pictured here with his daughter Sierra
The pair began smashing up random cars with a tire iron and were caught on camera.
They stopped an 82-year-old man called John Budenas to ask for directions, then began beating him with the tire iron too.
The two then made their way to Clearwater Beach and spotted Chapman riding his bike, Bennett jumped from the car and knocked him off it with the iron.
Prosecutors said they then took turns in beating him to death with the tool, with surveillance footage of the brutal attack being previously shown to jurors.
Chapman had no connection to his killers and had not engaged with them prior to his killing, with the senselessness of the murder outraging his family.
Chapman’s daughter Sierra addressed the court by phone, saying: ‘My father was murdered for sport.
‘What makes this even more disgusting is that the defendant was on probation for a violent felony when he did this. A violent prior offense, probation given, and murder chosen.
‘If this is who he has been when he was given a second chance, what exactly would a third chance produce? My father was given no chances that night.’
Morrison’s defense attorney and prosecutors went back and forth on Monday, arguing over his involvement in a previous violent felony and whether he deserved harsher penalties because of it.
The court heard that prior to the killing of Chapman, Morrison was arrested for carrying out an armed carjacking and sentenced as a young offender.
A probation officer described Morrison as a ‘danger to society’, the court heard on Monday
Judge Jack sentenced him to 15 years for manslaughter, and another 30 years for violating his probation on the carjacking charge
Due to his age, his sentence was capped at six years but he only spent one year behind bars and was out on probation at the time of Chapman’s death.
The court heard that Morrison was 15 when he and two others planned an armed carjacking of another young man who had been seeing the same girl as him.
The victim, Benji Joseph, told the court he was forced from the vehicle and brutally attacked by the gang.
His injuries were so extensive he had to have his left ear reconnected to his head, he told the court he still suffers from pain.
At the time of Chapman’s death he had been out for just four months, with Assistant State Attorney Thomas Koskinas asking Judge Jack on Monday to sentence him to life in prison
According to the outlet, Koskinas cited a presentence report written up by a probation officer who described Morrison as a ‘danger to society’.
Morrison’s defense lawyer Jervis Wise said that imposing a life sentence would be a breach of a Supreme Court decision.
Wise cited Graham v. Florida, which found that sentencing juveniles to life imprisonment without parole for non-homicide crimes violates the Eighth Amendment.
Judge Jack sentenced him to 15 years for manslaughter, and another 30 years for violating his probation on the carjacking charge, with the two to run consecutively.
