Shawn Tyson guilty of murdering British tourists in Florida

[alp227]

Source: The guardian

A teenager who shot dead two British tourists on holiday in Florida will spend his life in prison after he was convicted of two counts of murder.

A jury in Sarasota took just two hours to decide that Shawn Tyson, 17, killed James Cooper, 25, and James Kouzaris, 24, after they strayed into a rundown area of the city after a night out last April.

Tyson, who bragged to friends about shooting the two friends because they refused to give him money, will receive a mandatory life term, almost certainly without the possibility of parole, when circuit court judge Rick De Furia reconvenes the case for sentencing.

The families of James Cooper and James Kouzaris said in a statement that Tyson was "evil", and that they had been given "a life sentence when our sons were so brutally and needlessly taken from us. Ours is a life sentence, with no chance of parole from a broken heart, and a shattered soul".

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/mar/28/shawn-tyson-guilty-murder-british-tourists

[BeyondGeography]

1. Nasty case

Fuck you, Shawn.

[sulphurdunn]

2. Sounds like the kid is soulless.

I don't know how that happened. There are lots of ways. His life may have played a part in it, then again he could have been raised with wealth and privilege and been just as soulless. The difference is he might have been murdering people from a board room instead of from a sidewalk and most certainly more of them without having to pull a trigger himself.

[Selatius]

3. I wonder why Shawn Tyson became such a mentally deranged individual.

Somebody who shows such callous disregard for human life and humanity is a broken person and needs mental help.

[mojowork_n]

5. News reporters aren't supposed to even cast

a speculative look in that direction.

Stark contrasts without much shading
or detail, that's all we're entitled to know.

...But what we don't know about others,
that's always a good question.

[Yo_Mama]

14. Here's a news story about his life

http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20120317/article/120319584?p=1&tc=pg
It's hardly what you describe.

[cali]

11. I don't give a shit. Just keep the piece of shit behind bars for

the rest of his days.

[The Northerner]

4. How sickening of him to brag about his killings n/t

[BanTheGOP]

6. Yet Trayvon's vicious murderer walks around free... N/T

[SamG]

9. No, not even an arrest or charge.

A murder took place, and Zimmerman admits to the murder.

All the questions of circumstances of the murder should be argued out in a court, after a lawful arrest and detainment, as in so many other "self defense" or questionable cases are handled in the USA each year.

This one, together with the unsophisticated actions of the Sanford police department, makes this look like a strange national war between American racists and American rational thinkers.

[cali]

12. so? does that invalidate this conviction?

No, of course not.

[safeinOhio]

8. No cover up

and no one walking around free.

[BlueStater]

10. Kid sounds like an evil piece of shit.

Thank goodness this monster is being locked up for the rest of his life. He doesn't deserve to live among decent human beings.

[nanabugg]

13. Glad his arrest and sentencing was swift and sure. May he rot in his cell. nt