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A coma victim dies, bringing new charges for his attacker
By Matthew Gilbert
(Court TV) -- It seemed like a "normal" high school fight. Students circling around the fighters. Few punches thrown before teachers put a halt to the fight. Conflicting reports of why the fight occurred. But there was nothing normal about the May 1994 fight outside West Bloomfield (Michigan) High School. Desmon Venn, then 17, punched classmate Zuhair Pattah, 16, between the eyes. Some eyewitnesses say Venn was an innocent bystander and thought Pattah had hit him. Others say Venn sucker-punched Pattah and then gloated to his friends as the fight was broken up. What is not in dispute is that Pattah fell, struck his head on the pavement and lapsed into a coma. Venn originally was charged with assault with intent to do great bodily harm, which carries a 10-year sentence. But the charge was reduced to a misdemeanor after a court ruled there was no proof that Venn intended to harm Pattah. Prosecutors unsuccessfully appealed the reduction in charges, and Venn pleaded guilty in 1995 to aggravated assault. He served two years' probation, spent two months in boot camp, and was fined $1,000. Then, on Jan. 8 of this year, Pattah died. For nine years his relatives had traveled every day to Flint, 30 miles away, to visit him in a nursing home, where he remained "in a persistent vegetated state in a coma," according to Oakland County Prosecutor John Skrzynski. Autopsy reports indicate that Pattah died of complications from blunt force head trauma. Prosecutors again charged Venn -- this time with involuntary manslaughter, although Pattah's family had pushed for a homicide charge. Venn, who has since married and has a child, now faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted. A preliminary hearing to determine if there is cause to try Venn is set for April 14 before District Court Judge Kimberly Small. But Venn's lawyers say the new charge violates the constitutional protections against double jeopardy. "This is simply a case of double jeopardy because the defendant was convicted on lesser charges arising out of the same transaction," said defense attorney Elbert Hatchett. The same transaction does not necessarily mean the same crime, argues prosecutor Skrzynski. "The involuntary manslaughter charge did not arise until Pattah died," he said. "Therefore, there were two different crimes committed." Skrzynski noted that in Diaz v. United States, the Supreme Court ruled that "double jeopardy does not bar prosecution for murder after conviction of assault where the victim did not die until after first trial." Gabriel Diaz was convicted of assault in May 1912. One month later, the victim died of complications from the assault. Diaz was then charged and convicted of homicide. "The death of the injured person was the principal element of the homicide, but was no part of the assault and battery," the Supreme Court wrote in its ruling. One Supreme Court scholar says that Venn's involuntary manslaughter charge does not constitute double jeopardy. "If double jeopardy was to apply here, the prosecution would have been put in an unenviable position," said Richard Friedman, a University of Michigan Law School professor. "If they wanted to charge the accused with manslaughter, they would have been forced to wait until the victim died. But if the victim never died, then the accused gets off without being charged for anything." The defense also intends to argue that prosecutors missed the six-year window for filing upgraded charges. Although the statute of limitations was amended in May 2001 to include a 10-year window for filing charges, defense lawyer Hatchett believes that, because the crime occurred before the amendment, only the six-year window should apply. Prosecutors disagree, saying that the statute should kick in Jan. 8, 2003 -- after Pattah died -- not in May 1994. "The statute starts when the crime occurs," said prosecutor Skrzynski. It is unclear what would have occurred if Pattah's family had decided to take their son off life support. Skrzynski believes such an action would have made his job more difficult. "It would be an intervening cause," he said. "We would have to prove there was a clear line between the defendant's action and the victim's death." That scenario might also have posed a greater challenge for the defense, suggested Hatchett. "Perhaps they could bring the charge up," Hatchett explained. "However, they'd first have to contend with what actually caused the death -- the punch or the pulling of the plug?" Venn and Pattah lived in West Bloomfield Township, an affluent neighborhood approximately 30 miles from Detroit. Venn is African-American and Pattah was Iraqi, but authorities do not believe the fight was racially motivated. Venn, who is being held in prison on $250,000 bond, was convicted of misdemeanor assault of a security guard in Fulton County, Ga., in 2001.
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