Former Wake Forest University coach gets probation for fatal assault in NY
A former Wake Forest University assistant basketball coach avoided prison time Thursday when he was sentenced for a fatal assault.
Jamill Jones, 37, was convicted in February of misdemeanor assault, and he was sentenced to three years on probation, 1,500 hours of community service and a $1,000 fine.
Jones, who resigned from Wake Forest last year, was charged following an August 2018 assault.
Authorities said Millbrook High School graduate Sandor Szabo was attending a wedding in Queens, N.Y., when he banged on the window of Jones’ car, mistaking it for an Uber.
An offended Jones punched Szabo so hard that he hit the pavement, police said. He was pronounced brain dead at the hospital.
The New York Medical Examiner determined that Szabo, 35, died from a blunt impact to his head that caused a brain injury and ruled his death a homicide.
Szabo's mother, Donna Kent, said she was appalled by the sentence.
"At a time when violent crime is dividing the nation, Americans should be able to look at the judicial system to hold those who fall afoul of the law to be held to account," Kent said in a statement. "Today’s sentence, like the charge of third-degree assault, was grossly inadequate and unfair for the crime of killing an individual."
Szabo's family plans to sue Jones to "do what the criminal court was too afraid to do: punish Jamill C. Jones for taking the life of our beloved Sandor," she said.
