20-year sentence ordered in death of cable installer
CROWN POINT, Ind. (AP) -- A Gary man was sentenced Thursday to 20 years in prison for the shooting death of an acquaintance who was making a bootleg cable television hookup at his house.
The sentence was set in an agreement Fransuah Mathews, 25, reached last month with prosecutors in which he pleaded guilty to a felony charge of voluntary manslaughter for the August 2004 killing of Verndell Warmack. Mathews was originally charged with murder.
Warmack, 39, was on a ladder hooking up an illegal cable connection at Mathews' Gary home when Mathews shot him, according to Lake County court records. Warmack suffered fatal wounds in the leg and chest as he fled.
Mathews, who said Warmack was hooking up the cable to repay a debt, became angry after he realized he needed to buy more equipment to use the cable on his TV, according to prosecutors.
Times Staff Report
CROWN POINT | A Gary man who became enraged when he realized his TV wasn't cable-ready and fatally shot the installer was sentenced to 20 years in prison Thursday.
Fransuah Mathews, 25, pleaded guilty in Lake County court to voluntary manslaughter for killing his friend Verndell Warmack, 39, on Aug. 7, 2004. Warmack offered to hook up cable at Mathews' residence in order to repay a debt. When Mathews went inside and found out his TV wasn't equipped to accept the service, he began shooting at Warmack, who still was on the ladder.
Warmack jumped off and ran, but Mathews chased him and shot Warmack in the thigh and chest, Mathews admitted in court.
Lake Criminal Court Judge Clarence Murray called the shooting "totally senseless."
"You took a promising life for no reason," Murray said.
http://www.thetimesonline.com/articles/2007/06/29/news/lake_county/doc4266ae580c7be54f86257308007f9997.txt
Another reason not to do illegal hook-ups!
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