Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, September 9, 1993 TAG: 9309090113
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: From Landmark News Service and Washington Post reports
DATELINE: HAMPTON LENGTH: Medium
Iverson, an 18-year-old senior at Bethel High School, was convicted in July of three felony counts of maiming by mob.
Iverson's sentence stems from his involvement in a chair-throwing brawl at the Circle Lanes bowling center in Hampton early in the morning of Feb. 14.
Judge Nelson T. Overton sentenced Iverson to three five-year prison terms for the felonies, then suspended two of the terms, meaning Iverson will spend a minimum of 10 months in prison.
"I'm shocked," said Iverson's tearful mother, Ann Iverson. "It's just unfair to say my son is a threat to society. I can't believe he won't even get to finish high school."
Allen Iverson was led from a packed court room at Hampton Circuit Court in handcuffs and was escorted by bailiffs to the city jail that adjoins the courthouse.
"If this were anyone else and not a star athlete of Allen Iverson's stature, you all wouldn't be here," said Marcellus "Boo" Williams, who coached Iverson in a summer basketball league for eight years. "The publicity has made this an example case and turned it into a media extravaganza."
Williams contended that a civil rights investigation of the case should be conducted.
"Any time you send a young man, whether he be white or black, to jail for five years for a first offense, the judicial system needs to be reviewed," Williams said. "There's got to be another way, another situation that would be better for Allen. You send this young man to jail with hardened criminals, he'll come out a hardened criminal."
In sentencing Iverson, Overton rejected a motion from Iverson's lawyer, Herbert Kelly, that the athlete attend Maine Central Institute, a prep school in Pittsfield, for a year, at which point his sentence would be reviewed and the charges possibly lessened to misdemeanors.
But Colleen Killilea, the assistant commonwealth's attorney, said the seriousness of the incident and Iverson's role in it called for some time behind bars. She said Iverson and the other men had not accepted responsibility for what happened.
A 6-foot-1, 165-pound point guard, Iverson had been one of the most heavily recruited players in the country after leading Bethel to state titles in football and basketball last season. He played quarterback in football and was named the Group AAA Player of the Year in both sports.
Iverson will spend 4 1/2 months at the Hampton City Jail pending an appeal. He will then be transferred to one of two penitentiaries, which house prisoners under the age of 22. With good behavior, he could be out of prison in June 1994.
To play college basketball, Iverson must earn a general equivalency diploma and improve his grade-point average, which reportedly was 1.8 in college preparatory courses at the start of the spring semester. That GPA falls below the 2.0 the NCAA requires for a freshman to compete in sports.
While in jail, Iverson will be able to take courses toward his equivalency diploma. But to play in college, Iverson also must score at least a combined 700 on the Scholastic Assessment Test, which he has not yet done.
Two 19-year-olds, Samuel Wynn Jr. and Michael Simmons, were sentenced with Iverson for their involvement in the brawl.
Wynn was given 17 1/2 years in prison with all but three years suspended. Simmons was sentenced to 17 1/2 years, with all but five suspended. Like Iverson, both had been found guilty of three counts of maiming by mob. But they also were convicted of two counts of assault and battery by mob and one count of disorderly conduct.
A fourth person involved in the fight, 18-year-old Melvin Stephens, previously was sentenced to three years in prison.
by CNB