FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Two men who were teenagers when they beat a homeless man to death with a baseball bat in 2006 received new sentences Friday as part of a plea deal with prosecutors.
Thomas Daugherty and Brian Hooks were found guilty of second-degree murder in 2008.
Daugherty was originally sentenced to life in prison, but his sentence was reduced to 40 years in 2012 after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that life in prison could not be a mandatory punishment for offenders who were under 18 at the time of the crimes.
The Florida Supreme Court then ruled last year that Daugherty should receive a new trial because the jury that convicted him was given erroneous instructions.
Daugherty and Hooks were back in court Friday as the sister of Norris Gaynor spoke to her brother's attackers, who were teenagers when the brutal attack occurred Jan. 12, 2006, while Gaynor was asleep on a bench in downtown Fort Lauderdale.
Simone Manning-Moon said she tried to imagine the "lengths that my brother went to to try to defend himself and stave off blows that were administered to his head."
She said every day since her brother's death, her family has been haunted with the reality that someone would kill Gaynor the way Daugherty and Hooks did.
Daugherty and Hooks spoke about how much they regret their actions and thanked Gaynor's family for their forgiveness.
"You are older than Mr. Dougherty," Manning-Moon told Hooks. "You had a much different upbringing than Mr. Dougherty. You knew better. So did he, but you knew better."
Broward County Judge Elizabeth Scherer sentenced Daugherty to 25 years in prison and Hooks to 22 years in prison.