Man Sentenced In Pizza Shop Attack
By Walt Hunter
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- A suspect who viciously attacked a father, for no apparent reason, as he dined in a West Philadelphia pizza shop with his wife and five-year-old son, will now spend seven-and-a-half to 15 years behind bars for his crime.
Judge Rayford Means sentenced 20-year-old Shaquir Johnson, after he plead guilty to the September 2012 assault inside a pizza shop at 60th and Chester Avenue.
Johnson, seen on video played during the sentencing at the Criminal Justice Center, is seen, along with his 16-year-old cousin who previously plead guilty on juvenile charges, punching, kicking and dragging 53-year-old Charles Diston as his young son jumps and cries trying to end the attack.
"You can see the son put his hands on his face, you can actually see him screaming and crying," Assistant District Attorney Morgan Vedejs said.
Outside on the sidewalk, the attack continued, the victim suffering broken ribs as he is robbed of his wallet holding money from his recently cashed paycheck.
"Kicking him, punching him, standing on top of him, you can see the wife is trying to sort of get wherever she can to remove the defendants from her husband," Vedejs said.
Johnson's attorney argued for a more lenient sentence, telling the judge there is more to the story than just what is seen on the video.
But Judge Means, calling the attack a "cowardly act" pronounced the exact sentence prosecutors had requested.