A man whose wallet was stolen outside a New Orleans gas station is accused of chasing down the alleged thief and beating him to death Friday morning.
Simon B. Morris, 31, is charged with manslaughter in the case, according to New Orleans police officials. The full name of the victim and his official cause of death had not been released Monday morning.
Police officers were called at 8:19 a.m. Friday to an ongoing fight in the 4200 block of South Claiborne Avenue. When they arrived, they found an unresponsive man lying on the ground.
The victim was taken to University Medical Center, where he died, a police news release said. Witnesses pointed to Morris as the man who had beaten the man who died.
The New Orleans Advocate reported that Morris was at an Express Mart on South Claiborne Avenue when the other man, identified in court records by his first name, Edwin, asked him for a dollar. Edwin then grabbed Morris' wallet from his back pocket and ran, the newspaper reported.
Credit: Google
Credit: Google
Morris caught up with the alleged pickpocket in the rear driveway of Hi Class Customs, an auto upholstery and window tinting shop across the street, and got his wallet back. That's when the beating began, the Advocate reported.
Witnesses who tried to restrain Morris told investigators he punched and kicked Edwin even as the man "was begging Morris to stop and was attempting to cover his face and body," police officials said. The beating went on "for a duration of five minutes or more," the Advocate reported.
Bystanders were eventually able to pull Morris off the man.
Louisiana law defines manslaughter as a homicide "committed in sudden passion or heat of blood immediately caused by provocation sufficient to deprive an average person of his self-control and cool reflection."
If convicted, Morris faces up to 40 years in prison.
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