Life sentence for murderer
Posted By TRACY MCLAUGHLIN
Posted 2 months ago
The man who tortured and beat Richard Boxall to death gave a veritable sermon from the prisoner's box, yesterday, moments before a judge sentenced him to life in prison, calling it a "murder most foul."
"Trust in the Lord," said Shawn Amos, 36, in a rambling speech in an apparent last-ditch attempt to avoid sentencing. "I pray that your anger will not blind you ... Praise the Lord, Jesus Christ."
Two weeks ago, a jury found Amos, the ringleader in the murder, guilty of first-degree murder, and his friend, 39-yearold John Preston, guilty of manslaughter.
A third man, Scott Dakins, was found not guilty.
During the trial, the jury heard how all three men, as well as a fourth who earlier pleaded guilty to manslaughter, were present as Boxall begged for his life while being beaten with a baseball bat, a meat cleaver, a pair of scissors and a barbecue fork because Amos thought he stole $15 worth of ecstasy tablets from an Owen Street apartment on Feb. 23, 2007.
Boxall moaned in agony as he was dragged to the bathtub and guarded while his captors decided what to do with him. Each time Boxall tried to escape, the beatings were repeated. In the end, they stuffed him in a vehicle's trunk and dumped him in a snow bank on Ridge Road in Oro-Medonte Township, east of Barrie.
"This murder was pure evil," said Bonnie Lee McKnight, Boxall's mother, as she read her tearful statement in court. "An act of senseless, worthless, brutal violence by four men who could have stopped the torture at any time."
The mother clearly did not accept the jury's decision to acquit Dakins, whom the Crown attorney insisted did nothing to help the victim.
Before Amos was sentenced, he took the opportunity to give his last words, reading a lengthy speech to the court, quoting Bible verses and insisting he didn't do the killing.
"I trust in the Lord, Jesus Christ, that the right thing will be done," said Amos, as he stood in the prisoner's box facing the jury, who showed up for the sentencing.
His words caused Boxall's mother and family to break out weeping in apparent anger. One friend held up her arm in court and made the motion of giving a lethal injection. Another friend became enraged and stood in court to shake his fist at Amos, causing two guards to take him by each arm and drag him out of court.
"It made me sick," friend Rochelle Hall said outside court during a break.
Amos' holy words apparently had no effect on Justice Robert Mackinnon, who handed down his sentencing moments later.
"You, sir, are a piece of work," said the judge. "You acted like a dog, a jackal, a savage beast."
"Don't believe him!" Amos blurted out, as he began weeping and blithering in the prisoner's box with his leg irons clanging.
"You don't know what I went through that day. The lord giveth and the lord taketh..." Amos said as he crumbled in the prisoner's box.
As Amos fussed and wept, the judge sat calmly, then said: "You just let me know when you're ready and I will continue."
When Amos went silent and slumped over in the prisoner's box, the judge p>"Your actions were disgusting, vile and repulsive," said the judge. "I urge your keeper to watch you well. You bear watching."
The judge sentenced Preston -- whom the Crown attorney referred to as Amos' "right-hand man" -- to seven years for manslaughter, which leaves him with 18 months to serve after deducting the almost three years he has already spent in jail on a two-for-one basis.
In court, the judge noted Preston "actively participated" in the killing and appeared reluctant to hand out such a light sentence, but noted he is "constrained" to give an equal sentence for manslaughter as the fourth man, Troy MacLean, who pleaded guilty to manslaughter in exchange for testifying for the prosecution.
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