DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - A 10-year-old boy was convicted Thursday in the beating of a homeless Army veteran that left the man so severely injured he had to undergo reconstructive surgery.

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Prosecutors say the boy, another 10-year-old and Jeremy Woods, 17, ganged up on John D'Amico, 58, as he and a friend walked through a Daytona Beach neighborhood on March 27.

Circuit Judge John Watson found the boy guilty Thursday of aggravated battery and set sentencing for May 24. The boy, who appeared in court in shackles and an oversized jumpsuit, could be held in the juvenile system until he turns 21, depending on the sentencing decision.

The other 10-year-old pleaded no contest to misdemeanor battery and faces up to a year in juvenile detention when he is sentenced June 18. He has been released to an aunt in Michigan.

Woods has been charged with aggravated battery and faces up to 15 years in state prison if convicted. He has pleaded not guilty.

D'Amico has undergone numerous operations since the attack, including reconstructive surgery to his face.

Anyone up for a bit of the ol' Ultraviolence?

It seems to be a national pass time

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - A string of beatings of three homeless men in Fort Lauderdale in a single night last week has cast a spotlight on a brand of crime activists say has practically become sport among young people around the country.

Police say the attacks were carried out by a group of teenagers who piled into a car with baseball bats, a golf club and a paintball gun and went looking for homeless people to beat up.

“I wish I could say this was shocking and appalling, but it’s not. We see it all the time,” said Laura Hansen, executive director of the Broward Coalition for the Homeless. She said she sees the bruises, black eyes and broken teeth suffered by homeless victims on a daily basis.

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From Florida to Alaska, dozens of homeless people are attacked each year, most often by white men under 20, according to the Washington-based National Coalition for the Homeless. Baseball bats are a favored weapon, as well as rocks, bricks, fists and feet, pellet guns and knives.

Three teenagers are charged with murder in the Jan. 12 beating death of 45-year-old Norris Gaynor, whose head and chest were bashed with a baseball bat while he slept on a park bench. He was also shot several times with yellow paintball slugs.

One the same night, another man was assaulted with a golf club outside a nearby church. A third was bludgeoned with a bat outside a college building — an attack that was captured on surveillance video, which helped lead to the arrests. Both men were seriously injured.

“This will shine a very bright light on an issue that has been camouflaged and buried for a long time,” said Marti Forman, chief executive of the Cooperative Feeding Program in Broward County. “People put blinders on until it’s right under their nose.”

The National Coalition for the Homeless has documented 386 attacks on the homeless over the past six years, including 156 deaths. Of the total number of attacks, 211 have been recorded since 2002.


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Third teen charged in homeless beating


The real numbers are probably much higher, because homeless people often cannot or will not go to the police, and the analysis is not an exhaustive look at every jurisdiction in the country, said Michael Stoops, executive director of the homeless coalition.


“Homeless people just take it on the chin and move to a more secluded area,” Stoops said. “We know that this is underreported.”

Advocates for the homeless say that in most cases, the attackers beat up the homeless for kicks, or out of contempt for the down-and-out.

“They do this because they think they can, that they can get away with beating a homeless person and nobody will care, and the homeless won’t be able to fight back,” Stoops said.

Many homeless people say they live in fear of attack every night and often try to sleep somewhere well-lit or at least well-traveled.

In a series of interviews after the Florida attacks, each person had a story about being confronted or assaulted or knowing people who had been, often by groups of youths who seemed to enjoy what they were doing.

“You’ve got to sleep and be halfway awake at night,” said Van Jackson, 53. “This case is the worst I’ve seen so far, but it does happen all the time.”

Added 30-year-old Jason Grablauskas: “They mess with us all night and we didn’t do anything. It don’t make no sense.”

Police in Fairbanks, Alaska, warned the homeless there to be extra vigilant in September after a series of attacks by groups of teenagers wielding baseball bats. A similar warning was issued in Sacramento, Calif., in June after at least four homeless people were hurt in BB gun shootings.

Homeless people were bashed with clubs in a series of summer attacks in Cheyenne, Wyo. And in Los Angeles, two 19-year-old men who said they were inspired by videos depicting fights between homeless people were arrested in August on charges of hitting people with aluminum baseball bats while they slept.

The Fort Lauderdale beating case might not have yielded any arrests and almost certainly would have gotten little attention if not for the video camera.

Brian Hooks and William Ammons, both 18, and Thomas Daugherty, 17, have been jailed on murder and assault charges. Hooks’ lawyer has said the young man did not inflict any of the blows. Ammons has yet to hire a lawyer. Daugherty’s attorney has not commented.

sounds like future republicans. damn filthy lazy good for nothing homeless.

I wonder if we did a survey to see if thier parents were republican or Democrat? I mean who teaches the values of treating homeless people with dignity more? Hmm I think the polls would be very enlightening.

I wonder if we did a survey to see if thier parents were republican or Democrat? I mean who teaches the values of treating homeless people with dignity more? Hmm I think the polls would be very enlightening.


I for one refuse to pin everything on being a republican/democrat. I also refuse to put the blame exclusively on the parents. There is no way they can control EVERYTHING that a child does. I think there is plenty of blame to go around on this craze. There is a series of video's out called "Bum Fights" I believe. Surely the company who distributes and sells these videos has SOME responsibilty for hooking impressionable minds onto this garbage. This has been coming for a long time and it's going to get worse before it gets better.

Family values has everything to do with this. IF the parents knew where thier kids were they certianly would not be beating up a homeless person. I am sorry but 10 years old is not old enough to be running around the streets on his own. There are YMCA clubs, boyscouts,sports, and tutor classes. There is no reason for that boy to be running around with older kids like that. It is the responsibility of the parents to know where thier kids are and what they are doing.
If this kid was taken to homeless shelters and educated about the homeless population and helped his parents in social programs like soup kitchens and other things this boy would have a much better understanding of homelessness and how it happens and had much better compassion for them no but instead his parents were off in thier own little obviously neclecting the childrens emotional intelligents and the kids had nothing better to do than to abuse a homeless person.

I for one refuse to pin everything on being a republican/democrat. I also refuse to put the blame exclusively on the parents. There is no way they can control EVERYTHING that a child does. I think there is plenty of blame to go around on this craze. There is a series of video's out called "Bum Fights" I believe. Surely the company who distributes and sells these videos has SOME responsibilty for hooking impressionable minds onto this garbage. This has been coming for a long time and it's going to get worse before it gets better.


yeah, like doing something USEFUL, like, burning the country to the ground.

Dharma already posted a thread about this a while back. We had a little bit of a heated discussion about a comment he made in reference to this story.

instead his parents were off in thier own little obviously neclecting the childrens emotional intelligents and the kids had nothing better to do than to abuse a homeless person.

No offense but BS. Maybe the parents were both at work just to give this little punk a rooof over his head. My parents both worked and we (4 sisters and a brother) had no ADULT supervision as teenagers. Did we go out and beat the hell out of homeless people? Of course not. I believe you are a parent, if not I apologize, but if so do you know what your kids are doing EVERY minute of EVERY day?