A View of Seven Cents

Anthony Stewart wants you to believe his current troubles are over seven cents.

He's the victim, he's the one irreparably damaged - facing a prison sentence and a permanent criminal record - and he's only 15 years old.  He wants you to fret over his future, feel sympathy for him, take his pitiful fate to heart.





Of course, there are some minor details he leaves out when he makes his plea to you.

Like his decision not to take a plea deal that would allow him to be treated as a youthful offender, the way his 16-year-old accomplice did under similar circumstances.

Like the fact that he, along with his accomplice, decided to take BB guns designed to look like more threatening weapons (one resembled a shotgun, the other a revolver), and rob a 73-year-old man.

Like the fact that they ran up on their victim, knocked him down, punched and kicked him in the face (breaking the victim's glasses in the process), then took all the money the man had on him - a mere seven cents.

Like the fact that the victim identified the two boys as his robbers, and that, despite admitted what he did to police officers after being arrested, Mr. Stewart opted to plead not guilty in court and take his chances with a jury trial facing charges as an adult.

"Well," said the judge presiding over the case to Mr. Stewart as he handed down a sentence of two to six years for first degree robbery, "that cost you."

His accomplice, Skyler Ninham, took a plea deal which sends him to jail (both will serve their time in a juvenile facility) for one to four years.  His sentence, however, is under a youthful offender statute, and his record will be wiped clean.

It was the same deal offered to Mr. Stewart, one he declined.  He took his chances and lost.  Now he claims he's being robbed.

“For seven cents, now you’re making someone a felon for the rest of his life,” said Mr. Stewart's lawyer, Laurin Haddad, during sentencing.

That's an incorrect statement.  Mr. Stewart made himself a felon for the rest of his life when he decided to arm himself, beat and rob an elderly man, implicate himself in the crime, then play a game with the criminal justice system instead of taking responsibility for his actions.  Mr. Stewart has no one to blame for his circumstances but himself.

Circumstances that only netted seven cents.  Such a small amount of money for such a major life choice and so little remorse.

More later, after pondering how life can be squandered by some and nearly lost by others for such a paltry amount of money.