Jury orders 61-year sentence for rock assault
By Craig Kapitan - Express-News
Jurors this week appeared to want to send a message to aggravated assault defendant Ralph Jerome Clemons, who used a large rock last summer to bash in the head of a disabled veteran holding a puppy.
Randolph Tidwell was 61 at the time Clemons sent him into a coma as he walked down the street of an East Side neighborhood. After quickly finding Clemons guilty, jurors ordered him to serve 61 years and pay a $6,100 fine.
Clemons, 35, had no apparent motive for attacking the man, prosecutors Wendi Wilson-Ortiz and Daryl Harris said during the three-day trial. Tidwell's injuries were so severe that he was taken off life support, they said.
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