Florida Teen Gets Life Sentence In Wrestling Death Of 6-Year-Old

A Florida teen who says he was imitating the body-slamming of pro wrestlers when he killed a little girl was recently sentenced to life in prison without parole after a judge refused to reduce his first-degree murder conviction.

Tears rolled down the cheeks of the teen, Lionel Tate, now 14, as he was led away in handcuffs and leg shackles to begin serving the sentence that was mandatory under a tough-on-crime Florida law enacted in the mid-1990s.

Tate becomes one of the youngest defendants in the U.S. ever to be sentenced to spend the rest of his life behind bars.

The prosecutor himself suggested the sentence was too harsh, but he also noted that the boy's lawyer and his mother had repeatedly rejected a plea bargain that would have meant only three years in juvenile detention.

In imposing sentence at the Broward County Courthouse in Fort Lauderdale, FL, Judge Joel Lazarus called the beating of 6-year-old Tiffany Eunick "cold, callous and indescribably cruel."

Tate was convicted earlier this year of first-degree murder (JET, Feb. 12). Tiffany suffered a fractured skull, a lacerated liver and more than 30 other injuries on July 28, 1999, from being punched, kicked, stomped and thrown around the house that Tate shared with his mother, Kathleen Grossett-Tate. Tate was 12 years old when the incident occurred.

During the trial, the defense argued that the 170-pound boy did not mean to kill the 48-pound girl. He thought he could body-slam people and they would walk away unhurt, just like his wrestling idols on television.

The judge rejected a defense request to throw out Tate's conviction or reduce it to a second-degree murder or manslaughter, saying: "The evidence of Lionel Tate's guilt is clear, obvious and indisputable."

The judge also questioned the defense argument that Tate was imitating pro wrestlers. "It is inconceivable that such injuries could be caused by roughhousing or horseplay or by replicating wrestling moves," he said.

Tate's mother, a Florida Highway Patrol trooper who described Tiffany's death to the judge as a "tragic accident," showed no reaction to the sentence. Several family friends and relatives wailed.

Defense attorney Jim Lewis said he would appeal and also ask Florida Gov. Jeb Bush to reduce the sentence. Bush called the incident "tragic" and said he would consider clemency if requested. The prosecutor in the case, which has received national attention, said he would support clemency.