Mugging Victim Goes On Trial For Killing Bystander

In January 2008, subway conductor Maurice Parks was walking home in Harlem when he was mugged by a group of attackers who also stabbed him. Parks, a martial arts expert, chased them off but thought he ran into one of them—and fatally stabbed the man, who turned out to be a bystander. Parks is now on trial for Flonarza Byas's death: Prosecutors say Parks "took it upon himself to exact the most ancient form of justice - an eye for an eye," stabbing Byas 15 times. However, Parks' lawyer said his client was "acting under fear and great distress" and "reasonably believed” Byas was one of the attackers, adding, "Mr. Parks was a very innocent victim who made a mistake about another innocent victim." The NY Times has audio of Parks' 911 call, where he tells the operator that he's been attacked and then apparently sees Byas and stabs him—Byas's screams can be heard.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Jen Chung in News on May 15, 2009 5:25 PM

Comments [rss]

Guest

Get a good lawyer!

tmz is evil

Typical of a scum-sucking lawyer to spin the circumstances of an event with double-speak. We're supposed to let this guy off this hook because he was under emotional distress, right? Well, what about the thousands of people yearly who are also assaulted, suffer emotional distress, and don't wind up killing someone else in the process?

The point: why should this douche bag's exceptional reaction be considered "natural" (and therefore excusable) when it clearly isn't? But this is the game that lawyers play-- try to paint their client's actions with a brush of "normalcy."

Spirit of 76

You're reading the old articles when information was sketchy. Both the current Post and Times articles say Parks approached Byas, not vice versa.

Apparently, you didn't bother to read the sentence in the NYT that said, "Mr. Parks, bleeding from the abdomen, was looking for his attackers when he came upon Mr. Byas and stabbed him — 15 times, according to the charges." Looking for his attackers. That's intent to cause bodily harm right there. He was not exercising his duty to retreat, which the law requires to prove self-defense. Regardless of whether or not Byas was an attacker, it is against the law to pre-emptively stab somebody. Obviously, vengeance was on his mind. The fact that Parks had previously shot somebody else under similar circumstances won't help his case. He has a demonstrated history of violence.

Spirit of 76

Meant for sweatyelectric.

Rocknrope

Boy, the account of this story differs dramatically from when it originally was released. First, the victim was thought to be one of the muggers. Then, it was said that the victim "wandered into" the mugging. Now, the perpetrator went looking for his muggers, found the victim, and stabbed him to death.

sweatyelectric

Is he charged with murder? You'd think it would be a lesser charge like manslaughter or something. The dude wasn't out looking for somebody to kill - he got attacked. I think he should walk.

Spirit of 76

Read the article. He was looking for somebody to kill. The attack was over and the guy he stabbed to death wasn't even one of the attackers. Even if he had found one of his attackers, it would have been illegal to just stab the guy. There's self-defense and then there's retribution.

sweatyelectric

Well, since you read the article, you would also see that Byas was telling the police arriving at the scene that he "wasn't with them," meaning the attackers. So it sounds like he was there when Parks was mugged. Then, from what can be gathered from the articles, Byas runs up to Parks in an attempt to help him.

So if you're Parks, you see a guy present when you stabbed come running up to you. I can see why Parks might start stabbing the guy, thinking he's an attacker coming back to hit him again. In his mind, the attack wasn't over yet.

Anyway, there's plenty of reasonable doubt here for a murder charge.