LITTLE ROCK — A Little Rock man who chased down, ran over, and beat and kicked a 14-year-old boy who had stolen his wallet was found guilty Wednesday of second-degree murder and was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
After deliberating for just 30 minutes, the jury opted against finding Michael Sadler guilty of the more serious charge of first-degree murder in the May 3 killing of Michael Stanley Jr. Sadler’s attorney, David Cannon of Little Rock, had asked for his client to be found guilty of manslaughter.
Chief Deputy Prosecuting Attorney John Johnson said he was satisfied with the verdict.
“The defense wanted a manslaughter charge. [The jury] convicted him on a murder charge,” Johnson said.
Cannon said he didn’t yet know whether his client would appeal.
“He’s still in a little bit of a state of shock,” Cannon said.
If convicted of first-degree murder, Sadler faced a sentence of 10 years to life in prison. Manslaughter is punishable by three to 10 years in prison, and second-degree murder by six to 30 years in prison.
During the one-day trial in Pulaski County Circuit Court, Cannon didn’t dispute that his client ran over, then beat and kicked the boy, nor that his client was guilty of a crime.
But he said the killing didn’t amount to murder because his client’s intent was simply to get his wallet back.
Arkansas Code 5-10-102 defines first-degree murder to include committing a killing “with the purpose of causing the death of another person” or knowingly causing the death of someone 14 or younger.
Second-degree murder includes knowingly causing a death “under circumstances manifesting extreme indifference to the value of human life,” while manslaughter includes recklessly causing a death.
“This is a reckless situation, a situation that got out of hand for both parties, and unfortunately Michael Stanley ended up dead,” Cannon said in his closing argument.
Johnson and Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Sean Strode countered that Sadler took the law into his own hands.
“He was the jury, and he was the executioner,” Johnson said.
Sadler, 59, didn’t testify. In a statement to detectives that was played for jurors, but was barely audible from the courtroom gallery, he acknowledged using crack cocaine and described himself as homeless, saying he had recently been staying at the Budget Inn on South University Avenue in Little Rock.
That morning, he said, he was looking for someone he suspected of stealing his .38-caliber handgun. He said he flagged down two bicycle-riding teens at Asher 1-Stop at Asher Avenue and South Maple Street, and offered them money for their help.
When he showed them the $1,300 in his wallet, one of the teens, later identified as Michael, snatched it and pedaled away, Sadler told police.
Footage from a surveillance camera positioned at the rear of the convenience store showed that the teens split up, one going along South Oak Street and Michael, followed by Sadler’s minivan, going south through the alley next to the convenience store, then off the pavement and into a vacant lot.
Sadler told police he “bumped” the boy with the minivan but didn’t know if he ran over him. He also acknowledged he got out and slapped him.
“I pulled him up and said, ‘Where’s my damn wallet?’” Sadler told detectives.
Paris Wilhelm, a city code enforcement officer who had been on the job for just two months, said he saw the van in the trash-strewn lot and at first thought Sadler was punching and kicking trash.
He didn’t realize Sadler was beating a person, he said, until he got closer, and saw Sadler pick up a boy by the pants and drop him.
“I yelled for him to stop,” Wilhelm said.
He said he went to the boy and held his hand until emergency personnel arrived.
“I tried to calm him with my voice,” Wilhelm said.
The boy was taken to Arkansas Children’s Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Daniel Dye, associate medical examiner at the state Crime Laboratory in Little Rock, testified that the boy had been struck by a blunt object - most likely the van - that broke a rib, punctured a lung, caused his liver to burst and broke his left femur.
While the internal injuries caused the boy’s death, he also suffered less-serious injuries, consistent with being beaten, on his face, Dye testified.
Little Rock police officer Kevin Sexton testified that Sadler’s wallet fell out of the back pocket of the boy’s pants after they were removed by ambulance workers.
Arkansas, Pages 9 on 01/31/2013