A Circuit Court jury yesterday found Antonio guilty of second-degree murder for beating 17-year-old Richard Bell to death with a baseball bat over a $100 debt. They were Makaha friends who had known each other since the seventh grade.
"I'm tremendously disappointed," said Susan Arnett, Antonio's attorney and deputy public defender. "The case was never one of murder. He never intended to kill Richard, his friend."
Murder carries a life prison term with parole, and the parole board usually sets minimum terms for murder at 25 to 35 years, she said.
Antonio, who took the stand in his own defense, said Bell scared him when he swung at him with a bat on April 16, 1995.
He said he grabbed the bat and hit Bell, not remembering how many times. When he saw Bell was lifeless, he left him in a field, believing he had killed him.
Arnett said she argued that Antonio acted in self-defense when he hit Bell with a bat, but didn't ask jurors to acquit him.
She also said jurors could have found Antonio guilty of manslaughter based on reckless behavior or extreme emotional distress. Manslaughter carries a 10-year term.
Deputy Prosecutor Barry Kemp had argued that Antonio bashed Bell's head with a bat and left him to die. He said one blow caused Bell's teeth to protrude through his lip and another fractured his skull.
Kemp declined comment after the verdict, saying he would comment at Antonio's Aug. 27 sentencing.
Circuit Judge Bambi Weil rejected Arnett's plea to allow Antonio to remain free on supervised release until sentencing, but gave him extra time to say goodbye to his family.
Antonio's wife, Lana, slammed her fist on a railing when jurors returned the guilty verdict after deliberating about a day.
Diane Pang, Antonio's aunt who raised him, wept in the courtroom.
Arnett said she "was at a loss to explain how the jury reached its verdict." She also said she would appeal, arguing that jury selection was not random and violated the laws that call for a cross-section of the community.
She said because it is summer, the jury was heavily weighted with students and teachers.
Arnett said jurors were instructed that they could not convict Antonio of murder or manslaughter based on his failure to seek medical care for Bell. She said jurors could use that information only to consider Antonio's state of mind at the time he hit Bell.
Antonio testified that he returned to the scene in the morning and became scared when he saw Bell breathing. He said he told Bell he would get help, but instead sought out a friend and later lied when Pang asked him if he knew Bell's whereabouts.