BishopAccountability.org
 
  30 Months in Prison for Teens Who Beat Priest

By Chris Dettro
SJ-R.com [Springfield MO]
July 20, 2005

The two Springfield teens who admitted beating a Catholic priest in Douglas Park on Dec. 21 were sentenced to 30 months in prison Tuesday.

Jamie E. Gibson, 17, and Ryan Boyle, 16, pleaded guilty to aggravated battery on May 23. Boyle, although only 15 when he committed the crime, was prosecuted as an adult. He will serve his sentence in a state Department of Corrections juvenile facility until he turns 17.

The two hit and kicked the Rev. Eugene Costa, 54, more than 20 times in the head during an encounter after closing hours in the park four days before Christmas.

A Springfield Park District police officer came across Costa's car near the Douglas Park band shell about 10:30 p.m. Costa was found near the vehicle, severely beaten.

A Crime Stoppers tip led authorities to Gibson and Boyle. Gibson told police he and Boyle had cut through the park and stopped near a bench to smoke a cigarette. An older man, later identified as Costa, walked up to them, started talking and eventually offered Gibson $50 for sex acts, police said Gibson told them.

Gibson told police the man had rubbed up against him and touched his leg, causing him to step back. When the man did the same thing again, Gibson punched him, knocking him to the ground. Gibson and Boyle then started kicking him in the head, police reports said.

Springfield attorney Dan Fultz, who along with Jon Noll represented Gibson, said Circuit Judge Leo Zappa should consider that his client had been provoked.

"Our client was not looking to create problems for anyone," Fultz said. "He was touched once, possibly twice, before he retaliated."

Assistant state's attorney Karen Tharp said the two had hit Costa in the head until he fell.

"By their own admission, he never offered any resistance," she said. "They continued to kick him in the head, not once or twice, but 25 times.

"Then they left - they left him in the cold," she said. "They never sought help for him. Miracle of miracles, he was found and put on the ventilator to keep him alive."

Tharp recommended a three-year sentence for each teen.

Fultz asked for a sentence at the low end of the two- to five-year range applicable to the crime.

"They weren't in the park looking for somebody to beat up," Fultz said.

Sangamon County public defender Brian Otwell, who represented Boyle, also asked for a lower-end sentence. The defense attorneys did not ask for probation for their clients, agreeing that both teens had violated probation previously.

"Only one person was in the park that night to commit illegal activity, and that was the victim," Otwell said. "Does that excuse my client's behavior? No."

He said Boyle has admitted he wasn't justified in his behavior, but that when he ran away, he didn't know the extent of Costa's injuries.

Costa, formerly pastor of parishes in Sherman and Athens and chancellor of the Catholic Diocese in Springfield, returned to Springfield last week after more than five months at an out-of-state convalescent center for priests, nuns and members of religious orders. Costa has resigned his positions and has been removed from any ministry or diocesan duties, though he continues to be paid as a priest.

The diocese has said Costa resigned because of "previous instances of inappropriate and risky behavior" that were discovered after he was beaten. Douglas Park has a local reputation as a site for homosexual activities.

Costa did not attend the sentencing hearing or submit a victim impact statement. He has told police he doesn't remember what happened.

Both Gibson and Boyle have extensive criminal histories.

Tharp said Boyle was found delinquent in 2002 on charges of criminal damage to property charge and burglary, was put on probation and then violated it. He spent a year in a juvenile facility and was paroled in October, she said.

Gibson had juvenile adjudications for retail theft, battery and burglary, she said. He twice violated terms of probation and dropped out of his drug treatment program. He was sentenced to prison and once violated his parole but was discharged from parole less than a month before the park beating.

Tharp said some of Gibson's offenses "were of an outright sexual nature," including one in which he touched the buttocks of a female teacher with his groin and another in which he asked another student a sexual question, then beat him to the ground and kicked him.

"Sounds familiar," Tharp said. "No matter what the provocation was, there was nothing that would justify the beating" Costa received, she said.

Both teens told Zappa they were sorry for what they had done.

"I hope to get out of prison and finish high school and go to a drug treatment program so I can finally get off drugs and get a job," Boyle said. "I want to do something with my life."

"Both of you are very young, but you've been around the block a time or two," Zappa said.

"Whether there was slight provocation or not, Father Costa came within an eyelash of dying," he said.

He urged Gibson and Boyle to take advantage of programs and educational opportunities available to them in prison.

"Don't be a slug and just do your time," Zappa said.

 
 

Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.