Teen who helped murder stranger ‘for fun’ handed huge sentence

A Florida judge has jailed a 21-year-old man for 45 years over the shocking and entirely random killing of a cyclist.

Judge Elizabeth Jack sentenced Savonne Morrison on Monday following what was a lengthy hearing.

Morrison was just 18 and on probation for an earlier violent offense when 49-year-old Jeffrey Chapman was killed in Clearwater, Florida, back in 2022.

The court heard how Morrison had been released from prison only four months prior after serving part of a sentence for an armed carjacking that was committed when he was a younger teenager.

Judge Jack imposed 15 years for manslaughter and a further 30 years for violating his probation on the carjacking conviction, according to Tampa Bay Times. The sentences will run consecutively.

Prosecutors said Morrison had been contacted by friend Jermaine Bennett, who wanted help attacking his ex-girlfriend’s new boyfriend.

After failing to find their intended victim, the pair were said to have spent time drinking and taking cocaine as they drove around the Floridian city of St. Petersburg.

During the drive they were caught on camera smashing vehicles up with a tyre iron. They also stopped 82-year-old John Budenas to ask for directions before attacking him with the same weapon.

The violence continued after they reached Clearwater Beach, where they spotted Chapman riding his bicycle.

Prosecutors said Bennett knocked him from the bike with the tyre iron before the pair beat him to death.

Jurors were previously shown surveillance footage of the attack. Chapman had never met either of the men accused of killing him and had done nothing whatsoever to provoke the assailants.

Jeffrey’s daughter, Sierra Chapman, told the court: ‘My father was murdered for sport. What makes this even more disgusting is that the defendant was on probation for a violent felony when he did this.

‘A violent prior offense, probation given, and murder chosen.

‘If this is who he has been when he was given a second chance, what exactly would a third chance produce? My father was given no chances that night.’

Morrison’s parents also submitted letters to the court. His father wrote: ‘Throughout this case, it has been heartbreaking to watch my son be portrayed as someone that he is not.’

Much of the hearing focused on Morrison’s earlier conviction. Prosecutors argued that it showed a concerning pattern of serious violence, while defense lawyer Jervis Wise said that a life sentence would breach the US Supreme Court ruling in Graham v. Florida, which limits life-without-parole sentences for juvenile offenders in non-homicide cases.

Assistant State Attorney Thomas Koskinas had asked Judge Jack to impose a life sentence, citing a report in which a probation officer described Morrison as a ‘danger to society’.

The court heard Morrison was just 15 when he helped plan an armed carjacking targeting another teenager who had been seeing the same girl as him.

Victim Benji Joseph said he was dragged from his vehicle and beaten so badly his left ear had to be surgically reattached, adding that he still lives with pain from the attack.