A little over a year ago, we were horrified by a video of two young New Jersey men beating up a homeless man, seemingly for fun. One of those men, 22-year-old Taylor Giresi, has now been sentenced to three years in prison for beating 50-year-old victim David Ivins. "I already apologized to the homeless man; I knew him," Giresi said during sentencing. "It wasn't like anything serious. But when I put it on YouTube it got serious. I wasn't trying to hurt the man."
In his plea deal, Giresi pled guilty to conspiring to use a juvenile (his 17-year-old companion) to commit a crime; as a result, the more serious charges, including assault and theft (the two allegedly stole Ivins' bicycle), were dropped. Giresi's lawyer argued that his client has a low IQ and numerous psychological problems; he also claimed that Giresi was being egged on by the 17-year-old who was filming the beating. That 17-year-old spent more than two months in a state youth detention center, and later received a one-year suspended sentence, and was placed on probation.
"What I did was wrong," said Giresi, who claimed he was under the influence "of marijuana and something else" that day. "I wasn't thinking right. He said the wrong thing at the wrong time; I reacted on it." In the aftermath of the cruel beating, Ivins described the experience: “No good people, man. No good kids or youngsters. I think they should go away man...Scared me man—kicking me in the face and kicking me in the chest."
You can see the disturbing original video below. In perhaps the most disturbing part, Giresi knocks over Ivins, causing his nose to start bleeding. "Oh, my God, you're bleeding!" the 17-year-old cameraman says. "We didn't mean to do that. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. Wipe off the blood." The cameraman then tells Giresi to give Ivins a hug. Except when Ivins reaches out to accept one, Giresi goes ahead and knees him in the stomach. For good measure, he later kicks in him the head.
