Jamill Jones, the former Wake Forest University assistant basketball coach whose punch led to the death of a man outside of New York City in August 2018, received a sentence on Thursday without jail time, nearly two years after he was charged with a misdemeanor for delivering the deadly blow.
Donna Kent, the mother of the victim, had demanded that New York City prosecutors charge Jones with a more serious crime after Jones' punch led to the death of her son, Sandor Szabo, a 35-year-old Florida resident who graduated from a Raleigh high school. A jury found Jones guilty of third-degree assault during his trial in February.
He appeared on Thursday for a sentencing hearing that was held virtually, over Skype, due to the coronavirus pandemic. For the first time, Jones apologized to Szabo's family, and at times spoke through tears when he addressed the court.
Moments later, Judge Joanne Watters, a New York City criminal court judge, sentenced Jones to three years of probation, 1,500 hours of community service and a $1,000 fine. Jones, who was facing a maximum of one year in jail, will not serve any time incarcerated.
In announcing the sentence, Watters said she found Jones' remorse genuine and referred to letters of support she'd received from people who vouched for Jones' character and contributions to his community. She said that a jail sentence "would only serve to punish Mr. Jones."
"A jail sentence would also remove Mr. Jones from the community that has benefited from his commitment, mentorship and talent _ thus also punishing them," the judge said. "Finally, a jail sentence would attempt to provide superficial closure to Mr. Szabo's family, whose grief and pain will live beyond the jail sentence."
Three members of Szabo's family provided victim impact statements, including Kent and her husband Robert, both of whom live in Raleigh. Szabo's brother, Dominik, also addressed the court. All three asked the judge to impose on Jones the maximum sentence of one year in jail, and all criticized the New York state laws _ or lack of laws, in their view _ that precluded prosecutors from charging Jones with a felony.
That Jones avoided jail time was undoubtedly an affront to Kent and other members of her family, who have spent much of the past two years speaking out against the way the case has been prosecuted. Kent has described her son's death as murder, and she offered harsh words to Jones when she spoke on Thursday during the hearing.
"He will always be a murderer, a coward," she said of Jones, before addressing him directly. " ... I believe that if you were the good person you say you are, we wouldn't be here today. It is said that time heals all wounds. I disagree; 718 days have passed, and nothing has gotten easier."
She spoke of a grief that she described as all-consuming. She also detailed her fight to bring light to what she has described as legal loopholes that lead, in her view, to a lack of justice in what she described as "coward punch" cases _ those in which a victim dies after being struck by a punch.
New York prosecutors insisted that state law constricted how they could handle the case, and that third-degree assault was the most serious charge they could levy. The drawn-out legal proceedings highlighted the gray area prosecutors often wade through amid so-called one-punch murders in New York and other parts of the country.
The sentencing brings an end to a case that began with a late-night chance encounter between Jones and Szabo in early August, 2018. That encounter, which spanned only seconds, led to one man's death and forever changed the course of the other's life. Both men were 35-years-old when they crossed paths outside of New York City. They'd been born just days apart in 1982.
Both had established successful careers with promising futures. And both had North Carolina connections: Szabo lived in Raleigh with his mother during his younger years, and graduated from Millbrook High School in 2000. In 2017, Jones became an assistant men's basketball coach at Wake Forest. He resigned last year.
"For the last 719 days ... I have lived this moment," Jones said on Thursday, moments after he apologized to Szabo's family. "I have dealt with this day in, and day out. I've lost my career, my family ... But the one thing that I've lived for every day is that I pray for this family. I pray that this family at some point can have peace."
Szabo and Jones encountered each other in the early-morning hours of August 5, 2018. Szabo, who lived in Boca Raton, Fla., where he worked in the digital marketing industry, had traveled to New York City to attend his step-sister's wedding. Jones had traveled to Manhattan to visit with his then-fiance, according to reports that emerged later.
After the wedding, Szabo celebrated with friends and family at the reception and during a party following it. He left a gathering at a Long Island City hotel around 1:15 a.m. that night, and his phone later revealed that he'd ordered a ride from Lyft to take him back to his hotel. Witnesses later told investigators that they saw Szabo stumbling while walking down the sidewalk.
Kent did not dispute that her son had been intoxicated. About 20 minutes after Szabo left the post-wedding party, Jones, who was driving a white BMW SUV, stopped at Long Island City intersection near where Szabo had been standing, presumably waiting for his ride. Szabo approached Jones' vehicle, perhaps thinking it was the Lyft he'd requested.
What happened next remained in dispute, and became part of the crux of the case. During his trial in February, Jones testified that Szabo aggressively struck the rear window of his vehicle, according to PIX11, a New York television station that covered the trial. During his testimony, the station reported, Jones said Szabo broke the vehicle's back window and caused it to cave in, causing Jones to fear for his safety.
Kent, meanwhile, questioned how her son could've had the strength and ability to do such damage, given his intoxicated state. She also said that Szabo's hands showed no signs, such as cuts or bruising, that he'd broken a vehicle's window. Surveillance footage from the scene, which came from a nearby convenience store, did not show the full altercation between Szabo and Jones.
It did show, however, the moment when Jones exited his vehicle and pursued Szabo. During the course of a few seconds, the footage shows Jones walking toward Szabo, who moves backwards with his hands up. A moment later, Jones punched Szabo in the face, causing Szabo to fall. His head struck the sidewalk, and he never again regained consciousness. Szabo spent two days on life support and was pronounced dead on Aug. 7.
Doctors harvested six of his organs, which saved the lives of four people. Sean Moynihan, a retired paramedic from Toms River, New Jersey, was 58 when he received Szabo's heart. He was grateful that it saved his life, he said in an interview with The News & Observer early last year, but it was difficult for him, too.
"Because I knew somebody else's family had to deal with something tragic," he said then.
He and Kent began corresponding. Moynihan wrote her a letter.
"Dear Donna," it began, "My name is Sean ... My wife, two daughters and I are heartbroken for your loss of Sandor. From your description of him I think he and I could have been friends. I too love the water, fish often, and when at the beach I prefer being in the water.
"I am the recipient of Sandor's heart. I knew it had to come from a good person because when I awoke that morning after the surgery I felt better than I had in years. When it's quiet I can hear it beating strong and steady. We can't thank you, your family, and Sandor enough.
"There just aren't words. To us this gift I have received is no less than a miracle ..."
Kent said the lives her son saved through his organ donations represented "the only positive" thing from his death. For nearly two years, she has fought for perpetrators in one-punch death cases to face more serious consequences.
During her statement on Thursday, Kent held up a small teddy bear that Moynihan had given to her. He'd recorded the sound of his heartbeat _ the sound of Szabo's heart beating _ and had it placed on a device inside the bear. Kent held the bear close to the microphone and asked Jones to listen to the heart beat.
"This is the sound of my son," she said.
