A judge today gave Demetrius Huff the maximum prison sentence for the brutal slaying of a teenager who was stabbed 54 times in a wooded area near Colvin Avenue in North Buffalo before Huff set his body on fire to destroy any DNA evidence.
State Supreme Court Justice Russell P. Buscaglia sentenced Huff, 18, to 25 years to life for the grisly attack on Darren Brown, 16, on July 5, 2012, on the former railroad tracks.
The attack, which was allegedly linked to gang rivalry, left the victim with a severed carotid artery and jugular vein and a punctured lung.
Even though it appeared Brown was done for during the attack by Huff and two others, he jumped up twice to offer resistance but was beaten and stabbed again. After his throat was slit, the resistance stopped. He was dead.
One of the attackers spit on him; another dragged him into the brush and left him there.
Later that night, Huff returned, doused the body with gasoline and set it on fire.
Homicide prosecutor Colleen Curtin Gable urged the judge to impose the maximum sentence.
“This defendant’s brutal acts, his utter lack of remorse and complete refusal to accept responsibility for what he did are a potent, disturbing and dangerous combination,” she said. “Society must be protected from Demetrius Huff for as long as possible.”
Brown’s mother, who had attended Huff’s murder trial in October, was in the courtroom for today’s sentencing but did not speak.
Curtin Gable spoke about Brown and the impact of Huff’s actions on the victim’s mother.
“Darren Brown was a 16-year-old kid who endured a horrific death and was burned and abandoned like trash,” she said. “But he was a person. He had family who loved him.”
She noted that his mother had attended not only Huff’s trial but also that of his co-defendant, Ezeiekile Nafi, and had heard testimony about how her son suffered that night.
“She will be without her son for the rest of her life,” Curtin Gable told the judge.
Neither Huff nor his attorney, Paul G. Dell, addressed the court before the judge sentenced him on his conviction by a jury for second-degree murder.
Curtin Gable had told the jury in her summation that Huff’s statements to police and a fellow inmate at the Erie County Holding Center, along with sneakers stained with the victim’s blood that were found under a chair in the attic of the Jewett Parkway home where Huff lived with his grandmother, showed he was guilty.
In a detailed handwritten description of the attack that Huff gave to the inmate after seeking his help to protect his aunt and family from any retaliation for the fatal attack, Huff described how he ran into Brown on the street that day in July. He said Brown told him he was a member of the same gang as Huff, the Rolling ’60s Crips, when he was really a member of a rival faction of the Crips. Brown’s family said he was not a gang member.
After Huff took Brown by the house of a fellow gang member, Antoine “Deuce” Sanders, Sanders later told Huff to keep him away from his house because it had been shot up. Sanders later told Huff and his friend, Nafi, that the three of them would attack Brown on the railroad tracks.
Sanders told Huff and Nafi to jump Brown on the path, and they attacked and fought the teenager before Sanders joined in the fight, stabbing Brown in the chest.
Huff, who was holding down Brown, let him go, but the victim jumped up, and Huff stabbed him in the legs and pelvis 10 times.
Huff said they were about to leave when the victim came back to life again. He said Sanders slit the victim’s throat and Nafi spit on the body.
Sanders removed the victim’s clothes and dragged his body into the bushes. Huff said Sanders told them they had to burn the body and warned them not to tell anyone about the attack or he would have to kill them.
He said they later met at Sanders’ house and changed clothes. He said Sanders told them that since Nafi had spit on the victim, they had to “clean up the area,” apparently to remove any DNA evidence. He told them to get some gasoline.
Huff said he got some gas, doused the body and lit it. “I almost burned myself,” he said.
Nafi, 17, was convicted by a jury of first-degree manslaughter and sentenced by Buscaglia in May to 25 years in prison.
Sanders, 20, has not been charged, although police said at Nafi’s trial that Sanders remained a potential suspect and had been interviewed.
email: jstaas@buffnews.com
State Supreme Court Justice Russell P. Buscaglia sentenced Huff, 18, to 25 years to life for the grisly attack on Darren Brown, 16, on July 5, 2012, on the former railroad tracks.
The attack, which was allegedly linked to gang rivalry, left the victim with a severed carotid artery and jugular vein and a punctured lung.
Even though it appeared Brown was done for during the attack by Huff and two others, he jumped up twice to offer resistance but was beaten and stabbed again. After his throat was slit, the resistance stopped. He was dead.
One of the attackers spit on him; another dragged him into the brush and left him there.
Later that night, Huff returned, doused the body with gasoline and set it on fire.
Homicide prosecutor Colleen Curtin Gable urged the judge to impose the maximum sentence.
“This defendant’s brutal acts, his utter lack of remorse and complete refusal to accept responsibility for what he did are a potent, disturbing and dangerous combination,” she said. “Society must be protected from Demetrius Huff for as long as possible.”
Brown’s mother, who had attended Huff’s murder trial in October, was in the courtroom for today’s sentencing but did not speak.
Curtin Gable spoke about Brown and the impact of Huff’s actions on the victim’s mother.
“Darren Brown was a 16-year-old kid who endured a horrific death and was burned and abandoned like trash,” she said. “But he was a person. He had family who loved him.”
She noted that his mother had attended not only Huff’s trial but also that of his co-defendant, Ezeiekile Nafi, and had heard testimony about how her son suffered that night.
“She will be without her son for the rest of her life,” Curtin Gable told the judge.
Neither Huff nor his attorney, Paul G. Dell, addressed the court before the judge sentenced him on his conviction by a jury for second-degree murder.
Curtin Gable had told the jury in her summation that Huff’s statements to police and a fellow inmate at the Erie County Holding Center, along with sneakers stained with the victim’s blood that were found under a chair in the attic of the Jewett Parkway home where Huff lived with his grandmother, showed he was guilty.
In a detailed handwritten description of the attack that Huff gave to the inmate after seeking his help to protect his aunt and family from any retaliation for the fatal attack, Huff described how he ran into Brown on the street that day in July. He said Brown told him he was a member of the same gang as Huff, the Rolling ’60s Crips, when he was really a member of a rival faction of the Crips. Brown’s family said he was not a gang member.
After Huff took Brown by the house of a fellow gang member, Antoine “Deuce” Sanders, Sanders later told Huff to keep him away from his house because it had been shot up. Sanders later told Huff and his friend, Nafi, that the three of them would attack Brown on the railroad tracks.
Sanders told Huff and Nafi to jump Brown on the path, and they attacked and fought the teenager before Sanders joined in the fight, stabbing Brown in the chest.
Huff, who was holding down Brown, let him go, but the victim jumped up, and Huff stabbed him in the legs and pelvis 10 times.
Huff said they were about to leave when the victim came back to life again. He said Sanders slit the victim’s throat and Nafi spit on the body.
Sanders removed the victim’s clothes and dragged his body into the bushes. Huff said Sanders told them they had to burn the body and warned them not to tell anyone about the attack or he would have to kill them.
He said they later met at Sanders’ house and changed clothes. He said Sanders told them that since Nafi had spit on the victim, they had to “clean up the area,” apparently to remove any DNA evidence. He told them to get some gasoline.
Huff said he got some gas, doused the body and lit it. “I almost burned myself,” he said.
Nafi, 17, was convicted by a jury of first-degree manslaughter and sentenced by Buscaglia in May to 25 years in prison.
Sanders, 20, has not been charged, although police said at Nafi’s trial that Sanders remained a potential suspect and had been interviewed.
email: jstaas@buffnews.com