21-year-old to spend life in prison for murder over a PS2
Two years after shooting four people and killing one of them, Jonquel Brooks, now 21, has been sentenced, and now he will be spending the rest of his life in prison all because of a dispute rooted from an allegedly stolen PlayStation 2. Violent video games again? Not this time.
Two years after shooting four people and killing one of them, Jonquel Brooks, now 21, has been sentenced, and now he will be spending the rest of his life in prison all because of a dispute rooted from an allegedly stolen PlayStation 2. Violent video games again? Not this time.
Prosecutor Burton Francis said that Brooks liked to flash a gun, deal drugs, and act like “a wannabe gangster.” The prosecutor, however, believes that Brooks has shown true remorse for what happened.
It was May 7, 2007, when Roderick Buycks Jr. along with three other friends came to Brooks’ apartment just west of the California State University, Fresno, campus. The four were looking for Buyck’s stolen PS2, which Brooks insisted that he didn’t nick, but the four kept arguing with him. Brooks went back to his bedroom, grabbed his .22-caliber revolver, shooting Buyck in the neck, the two others, but Buyck’s friend Brant Daniels was killed in the incident.
Brooks testified that he feared for his life and fired in self-defense because he thought that the four, who were much larger than he is, were going to attack him. According to his testimony, after firing a warning shot into the floor, the four kept advancing on him, leaving him no choice but to pull the trigger. Brooks ran from the scene, but later turned himself in. Police did not find the PS2 in question at Brooks’ place.
Fresno County Superior Court Judge Gary Orozco sentenced Brooks to 25 years for the murder of Daniels, another 59 years for three counts of attempted murder on Buyck and company, and yet another 25 for using a gun, bringing the total to a kiss-your-life-goodbye of 109 years.
PlayStations and shooters:
Via Fresno Bee