Florida Dunkin' employee is sentenced for fatally punching customer who used racist slur
A Florida Dunkin' employee accused of fatally punching a customer who used a racist slur against him pleaded guilty to felony battery and was sentenced to two years of house arrest. A Tampa judge on Monday also ordered Corey Pujols, 27, to complete 200 hours of community service and attend an anger management course.
Vonelle Cook was irate when he entered the Dunkin' store last May and began yelling about customer service, police and prosecutors said. When Pujols, who is Black, asked him to leave, Cook called him a racial slur. Once Cook said the racial slur, Pujols walked around the counter and told him not to say that again. When he repeated it, Pujols hit him in the jaw and Cook fell to the floor. An autopsy said he suffered a skull fracture and brain contusions. Cook, 77, fell to the floor and knocked his head. He died three days later.
In agreeing to a plea deal, prosecutors considered the "totality of the circumstances," including Pujols' youth, his lack of criminal history and the fact that he did not intend to cause Cook's death, Grayson Kamm, a spokesman for Hillsborough State Attorney Andrew Warren, told the Tampa Bay Times. He said they also considered the behavior of Cook and what he said.
"Two of the primary factors were the aggressive approach the victim took toward the defendant and everyone working with the defendant, and that the victim repeatedly used possibly the most aggressive and offensive term in the English language," Kamm told the newspaper.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/corey-pujols-dunkin-worker-sentenced-fatal-punch-vonelle-cook-slur/
= new reply since forum marked as read
Hang tough, Corey
you been through a lot