Source: WYFF-TV, Tribune-Times, WSPA-TV, WHNS-TV
GREENVILLE COUNTY, S.C. -- A man who threw a fatal punch after using an anti-gay slur pleaded guilty to manslaughter Wednesday and was sentenced to less than three years in prison, WYFF-TV reports.
He will likely spend not even a year in prison, WSPA-TV of Spartanville reports.
Stephen Moller was charged in the death of Sean Kennedy, 20, in May of 2007.
Prosecutors say Moller attacked Kennedy outside of Brews Bar on Pelham Road in Greenville County. Kennedy fell and hit his head on the pavement.
According to witnesses at the time of his arrest, Moller shouted anti-gay slurs just before he attacked Kennedy.
However, in court today, prosecutor Mark Moyer read a statement Moller gave to an investigator in which he claimed he didn't know Kennedy was gay until after he punched him and that he hit him because he was angry that Kennedy had inadvertently brushed his face with his hand, the Tribune-Times reports.
"Everybody thought that this was maybe a hate crime, but it was not," Moller's attorney, Ryan Beasley asserted at the hearing. "Stephen had no idea that he was gay until afterwards."
Beasley called the killing a "tragic and freak incident with devastating results" and offered another possible explanation for the brain damage Kennedy suffered, telling the judge that a friend of Kennedy's, who was drunk, dropped after trying to lift him up.
"Oh, please!" a member of the crowd of Kennedy's family and friends present in the courtroom said in response.
Moyer said that shortly after Moller hit Kennedy, Moller called a girl that Kennedy was with outside the bar and left a voice message mixed with laughter, profanity and anti-gay epithets bragging about the assault.
Kennedy's mother pleaded unsuccessfully with the judge to listen to the actual recording before sentencing Moller. Instead, the prosecutor read a transcript of the message.
"Hey, I was just wondering how your boyfriend feels right about now," Moller said in the voice message. "Knocked the ---- out. The ------- faggot. Your boy is knocked out, man. The mother------. Tell him he owes me $500 for breaking my goddamn hand on his teeth, that -------bitch."
Moller, who turns 20 on Friday, originally was charged with murder and faced the possibility of life in prison until Greenville County's chief prosecutor offered the alternate involuntary manslaughter charge after a grand jury found "no malicious intent."
When the charge against Moller was reduced, Sean Kennedy's mother, Elke Kennedy, said her son's death and the way Moller was charged is another example of why South Carolina needs hate crime legislation.
In South Carolina, a murder conviction carries a sentence of 30 years to life in prison. The sentence for involuntary manslaughter ranges from zero to five years in prison, Greenville's WYFF TV reports. States with hate crime legislation can impose tougher sentences.
Without the hate crime legislation, there was no legal precedent for a stiffer charge.
In October, Thirteenth Circuit Solicitor Bob Ariail said that his office prepared the alternate charge of involuntary manslaughter after "realizing the possibility of no indictment on the murder charge ... would result in Moller's release."
In a written statement Ariail said, "We understand and agree with the concerns of the Kennedy family that the available punishment for this crime is inadequate. The five-year maximum punishment allowed by law for involuntary manslaughter is not sufficient in Sean's death ... However, the actions of the Grand Jury are correct under the law and our concern should turn to correcting the law."
Before sentencing today, Moller turned to apologize to Kennedy's family.
"I live with it every day," Moller told the family. "I wish it had never happened. I never thought this would happen. I'm sorry."
Elke Kennedy told the judge at today's sentencing that she couldn't be satisfied with a five-year sentence but that she wanted the family and the community to be shown "at least a little justice for Sean."
Beasley, told the judge that a prison sentence would "only hurt him" and that "there are some bad people in that place, and he's going to be exposed to things he's never seen."
Judge Ned Miller sentenced Moller to five years in prison, but suspended his sentence to three years with credit for the seven months in prison he has already served.
Miller said that "the easy thing to do would be to give him five years and move on," but that he wanted to try to rehabilitate Moller with three years of probation after the sentence is served. Miller also ordered Moller to undergo anger management and substance abuse counseling, submit to random drug tests and perform 30 days of public service.
Outside the courtroom, Kennedy said that the judicial system is "a joke" and that she wasn't ready to accept Moller's apology. Kennedy said that it was "ludicrous" to think that her son's injuries, which included his brain stem being separated from his brain, could have resulted from someone dropping him while trying to help him.
Full article: Defendant In Gay Man's Death Gets 2.5 Year Sentence | WYFF-TV
Stephen Moller gets three years in Sean Kennedy's death at club | Tribune-Times
Man Accused in Bar Beating Sentenced | WSPA-TV
Man Charged In Death Of Gay Man To Enter Plea | WHNS-TV