ANCHORAGE, Alaska — A young man who stole $7 and beer from a homeless man and urinated on him before kicking and stomping him to death in a city park was sentenced Friday to 70 years in prison.
Marc Steven Ewing, 19, was convicted of second-degree murder in the death of 37-year-old James Lockery III, who was attacked on July 12, 2009, while asleep in the park.
Superior Court Judge Michael Spaan told Ewing that he was shocked by the crime.
“This was particularly depraved and senseless,” the judge said.
Spaan sentenced Ewing to 70 years in prison with 20 years suspended, meaning that Ewing, who had just turned 18 when he attacked Lockery, will spend about 50 years in prison.
Ewing apologized to Lockery’s family and said he didn’t mean for things to “go that far.”
“Why did I do this crime? I really can’t tell you,” he said. “That night I can barely remember what happened.”
Lockery normally did drywall work but was unemployed with the downturn in the economy and was sleeping outside near some baseball bleachers when he was attacked by two men, police said.
Ewing was brought in for questioning several days after Lockery’s bloodied body was found inside his sleeping bag.
At first, Ewing denied everything, but later admitted that he took Lockery’s green duffel bag and beer and then kicked him in the head, a homicide detective testified Friday.
He and Lawrence Lobdell — who also was charged with second-degree murder but is gravely ill and likely won’t stand trial — then returned to a party going on at the park pavilion.
Later that night, the two returned to where Lockery lay injured in his sleeping bag.
Detective David Cordie said the first thing that Ewing did was urinate on Lockery’s head.
He then went to the top of the baseball bleachers and jumped on Lockery. The first time Ewing landed on Lockery’s stomach, the second time his head.
The two took Lockery’s cell phone, money and head lamp, Cordie said.
An autopsy showed Lockery died of blunt force trauma to his head and body, and had a lacerated liver and broken bones.
There was no evidence that Lockery fought back, Cordie said.
Lockery’s mother, father, sister and brother, as well as several of Lockery’s friends, provided the judge with victim impact statements.
Lockery’s father, James Lockery Jr., said his son’s dream was to move from Arizona to Alaska, and he did that in 1991. His son worked in the canneries. He was a caretaker at a lodge on Kodiak Island. He hunted, fished, trapped and panned for gold.
Ewing committed a “despicable act of murder,” the father said, and encouraged the judge to impose a life sentence without parole.
“He is a danger to society and should never be allowed to be a free man again,” said Lockery, an Army lieutenant colonel who came out of retirement to fight the war on terrorism.
In a letter to the court, his mother, Anna Marie Lockery, said her son loved living in Alaska. He preferred sleeping outside under the stars and that is why he was out in the open in the park that night, she said.
“What kind of person or demon does this?” she said in her letter.
Outside the courtroom, Shaunta’e Ewing, 22, said her brother was drunk and using drugs when he did things to try and impress the people he was with that night.
He never meant to kill anyone, she said.
“My brother is no monster,” she said. “He got bigheaded.”
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