Happy Coleman murder: teen pleads guilty

Openminded _ Fair enough this boy did something good to help your family and You Should be forever grateful to him for that. However it does not take away from the fact that he did a terrible thing to an innocent man. He took a life and for no reason. Maybe he regrets his actions, only he knows how he truely feels, he does however need this sentence, not just as a punishment for his crime but also to reflect on his actions, this is not the only crime he has committed so clearly there is a problem within him and I do hope he can overcome it. He made a choice that night, however bad his decision was. It was his choice and he alone is to blame. And for the record he did not own up immediately, he only changed his plea to guilty 3 weeks before the trial. Prior to this he had made up a story that Pat was harrassing him, which he later admitted was a lie. Yes his family will suffer because of it, yes he can also be considered a victim because at 15 he should not have been allowed out on the streets drinking. He should have been raised to have more respect for life. But he made the choice, he took pats life and now 2 little girls who loved their father will never see him again, their lives are changed forever. A mother will never get to speak to her son, nor will sisters and brother. Openminded, you need to stop defending this child and accept that he did a terrible thing and for god sake open up your eyes, just because he helped your family doesn't take away this terrible thing

firstly this boy is not my family as i have already made clear i also made very clear that i do not agree with violence in any way. i am most certainly not making excuses for what he did. i have no reason to. i was merely makingi t clear that there was no need to be calling anyone names.that there was 2 families involved here and that there is good in everyone even someone who murdered another person.there is no need for all the name calling and slagging off as this boys family are going through enough . no one sends their child out to do wrong and a little thought for the rest of the people involved here would be nice.
HOOF;
you seem to know a lot about what happened on the night are these facts or are you listening to the rumor monger??? i passed no comment to what happenend on the night because i was not there.
if you had read my first comment i stated i was not related to this young man in any way. how do you know that his parents didnt do excatly what you would ?? i do not love this boy as i wouldnt be that close to him i was just giving the know alls like yourself another picture of him. i most certainly did not defend him for murdering mr.coleman. i did not state he was innocent and as i have already stated i understand how others feel about what he did. but to come on here and add to the pain of all involved is not helping. I am not arguing his case as i have no reason to. i again make it clear that there is another side to this young man and calling him dirt and scum is not making things easier for anyone.........

OPENMINDED - I never said he was a part of your family, I said he helped your family. Yes I agreed with you there are 2 families involved here and one of those families is my family, My family that was torn apart because of the actions of this young man. Trust me, it is hard enough to try and forgive this child, to try to understand in some small way why it was he did what he did and To Heal fully from all of this then I do believe we need to forgive. It makes it so much harder when someone like yourself starts preaching and trying to make out that because he helped your family that we should be kinder to him. Now please just let Pat rest and stop all of this. This young man needs this sentence, trust me openminded because I don't think you have heard the full story

@openminded. It's all a matter of public record, no need for alleging I or anyone else need engage the services of a "rumor monger" to muddy the waters of this case. Nor was I there to witness the unprovoked attack.

Finally, for someone who claims to be infatuated with this case for no other reason than the names that have been used to describe this "boy", I see you're not above starting to sling one or two about. I presume "know-all" is but the start.

So if you don't mind, openmind/nevermind or whatever, I do know one thing, when it starts to get to personal insults, then its clear you have nothing more to add than the very thing you seem upset about in the first place. i.e. namecalling.

Seeing as you've managed to come full circle and contradict your point, I'll leave it to you.

hoof no one said this young man was a saint and im sure half the people commenting on this forum are no saints either. and the girls family were and still are here for her but you cant make a person take the help on offer she needed someone outside of her family to turn to and it just happened to be him. im sure you have a great family and hope that one day you dont find yourself in the same position as my niece or her boyfriend. we all have families to rear and not one of the people on here have a guarantee that our kids will be perfect all we can do is show them the right road and hope they dont take a wrong turn and end up taking their own or anothers life. i understand how people feel when it comes to murder but be real hoof gone are the days when 2 people sort out there differences in a fist fight . how would you feel if this forum was about your son and people who didnt know him were on here passing these comments about him. IM SURE YOU WOULD BE THE FIRST ONE ON HERE TO TELL THEM ALL A THING OR TWO.

@openminded. Please try not to assume what my reaction would be were I in that position. Believe me when I tell you this, if any one of my family committed such a cowardly act, an unprovoked act of murder compounded by a further attempt to cover up his attack in claiming to have been previously "gotten at" by his victim, I would most certainly not be defending him here, in Court or anywhere else for that matter. Before you tell me that makes me a bad parent let me tell you how I might feel were I to find my own flesh and blood had taken an innocent mans life for no reason:

I would be asking myself how irresponsibile I had been in rearing such a child, who could be out past midnight on the public street, drinking, at the age of 14 and capable of committing murderous violence upon a total stranger.

I wouldn't try to condone his act by telling people just how wonderful he was to a young girl once, or that he was very quiet as a child. Because, knowing the circumstances -and comparisons with a "fistfight" are irrelevant- Happy Coleman wasn't looking for a fight with some kid because of any difference as you put it, he was going home after a match).

I wouldn't have had the heart to argue his case online or indeed anywhere, because as a parent, I believe I would have to share at least some responsibility for my own childs' actions and live with my failure to carry out my parental duty to control him and ensure he was not out at that hour at 14 years of age, drinking on the streets with a violent temperament.

Of course another few things I would have to do after looking into my heart would be to rehabilitate him, get him away from the company he kept on the streets, make sure he didn't become a prison lag and came out a chastened man. Ensure that he and his parents did everything possible to help the family of his/our victim.

All right you obviously love this boy as a family member, you think no matter what he has done, that deep down he's good. Fine, that's how you feel, but to the rest of us, he has killed, and for no other reason than the beer bottle this 14 y-o was drinking from was knocked over by a man passing by on his way home. Surely you must see this young man had issues far beyond the loss of a beer, some pent up anger, obviously with a lack of respect and oblivious to parental control (unless his parents were aware of his staying out and drinking into the small hours, which I must doubt).

How can you continue to defend him as some innocent party caught up by events. This was entirely of his own making and he deserves punishment. If anything he is more fortunate than other killers because his name cannot be published.

There's such a thing as defending the indefensibile.

How could he use his hands when the man was twice the size and age of him he was scared!!!

firstly let me say i do not agree with violence in any form. i feel very very sorry for the coleman family. their loved one can never be replaced. i hope i never find Myself in their shoes.
can i add that i know the young man who took mr colemans life.
i know he made a very bad choice and will have to live with it for the rest of his life.
i also know he is not dirt or scum....
i know a young girl that was going through a bad time of it. who was cutting herself badly and trying to take her own life. she met the young man involved and he helped her to sort herself out. she stopped cutting herself and started to live a little. he helped her out of the darkness and showed her how to respect her life. DOES HE STILL SOUND LIKE DIRT???
let me add that this girl had a very hard working supportive family and did not have a bad up-bringing in any way.
he was 14 years old when he stabbed mr coleman and he went to the gards with his parents and hande himself in. he took responsibility for what he did and pleaded guilty from the start. he has shown remorse for his actions to his family and friends and has accepted his punishment and saved mr colemans family from the further stress of a triall. DOES HE STILL LIKE CUM?????
i am a self employed mother of 5. i have 2 little grandchildren and i am not related to this young man in any way.
i am however the aunt of his girlfriend and i understand that he took mr colemans life but he saved the life of my niece DOES HE STILL SOUND LIKE DIRT AND SCUM?????
i hope you will understand why i have this point of view and that you never have to deal with your child being the one to take the life of another. ONLY THEN WILL YOU REALISE THAT 2 FAMILIES WERE TORN APART AND THAT THE AGGRESSOR IS NOT ALWAYS SCUM AND DIRT.

if it wasnt for this young man my sister would have lost her little girl and for that my family very greatful.

i await the backlash .........

Obviously he's a saint.

To answer your SHOUTED questions:

1.: How do you maintain he respects life while ignoring the way he callously took an innocent one for no reason.
2.: Whether he likes cum or not is his own business, I suppose a few years of incarceration will determine that.
3.: Where was this girls' family that they should have to depend on a murderer to "save" her. So, yes he's does.

"The aggressor is not always scum and dirt".....so now he's just an "aggressor". Keep diluting his crime and in no time at all you can celebrate at his homecoming - where no doubt a hero's welcome will "await".

Unlike Happy Coleman, he gets the rest of his life back, don't expect everyone else to love him for what he is.

It is terrible the way people are so easily dismissing this as the act of an errant boy. Happy was a great skin and I can't see how he could provoke such an attack. I read somewhere that there was a reason for the guilty plea just to get a lighter sentence.
A terrible and cynical crime committed by a ruthless young man with no regard for human life.
There is some truth when people say the guy made a mistake. He said he "only meant to stab him in the face and not the neck".
RIP Happy

The youth involved is my boyfriend and I love him none of ye know him like i do and he didnt mean to cause the pain he did.
He didnt go out that night with intention to kill this man.
So ye can judge all ye like because the people that love him knows he didnt mean it. So take a look in the mirror before u judge a CHILD!!!!

A child at 16? Teenager is the more appropriate term for him. Should we feel sorry for him because of his age? I think not. You know most "normal" people with a few drinks in them would just resort to using their fists if provoked. But this guy takes it one step further and decides to break a bottle and stab an innocent man in the neck with it. So enough of the "he's just a child" bullshit...he's 2 years off being an adult in the eyes of the law and he knew damn well the consequences. I hope he enjoys his 10 years.

'normal' children don't behave like that.

Gazza... What da fcuk..

Next you'll probably want to open a book of condolences to the guy that was put away for the murder.. or the mistake of taking a life an innocent victim....

Incase I was mistaken... who was the victim here...

Well obviously the victim was not anybody commenting on these pages,I dont understand all this bitterness towards one boy, Has he done something to all the people commenting, yes he has done wrong, yes he has admitted his crime, yes there is room for people to have thier opinion but why such bitterness? Two wrongs dont make a right and all this name calling and degredation is not doing either family any favours.....

Id be really concerned about the amount of hatred in these comments! I would hope that you all would be able to cope if this was your son people were talking about.I could understand if you were a member of this mans family or circle of friends but on none of these statements have I seen anyone saying this. Well I knew Mr. Coleman, not very well, but to me he was a quiet man.I also know members of this boys family and at the end of the day, there are more sufferers than one in this...

Why cant all you people putting him down let it go. Yes he made a mistake but at least he stood up and took responsibility for it. All ye who are putting him down probably dont know him at all, and really, anyone can make a mistake. Im sure ye're not all perfect.

A mistake !

Jesus I hope you're as dismissive if the same misfortune is ever visited upon your own family by some arrogant little twat who's so easily offended he feels the need to stick a bottle in someone's neck.

I was been generous when I called that murderer IT..
I could have gone a lot lower...

That murderer is off to Crime College now for some part of the 10 year sentence...
Wioll he be scared for life, after what he did.. I think not...
It will probably be erased from his memory thanks to the governments rehabilation for him....

what i cant understand is, by law if you plead guilty to murder,
its a automatic life sentence. so how did he only get 10 years.
he is the first i seen to get away without a life sentnce. the dead mans family should appeal the sentence.

People are judged on what they do.I did not know Hitler but i know he was a sick git,so to say you can or can,t judge someone unless you know them is wrong.To kill anyone is not a mistake it is MURDER,and they sh*t of this world are the ones doing the killing.Will you still think like that if it was one of yours who got their neck ripped open by a kid who as you put it just made a mistake.I THINK NOT.

PIECE OF SHIT ............that is what he is, that must be nice to go jam a broken bottle in someones neck and think that it is ok and he will get away it coz he had a fucked up childhood or whatever, in any civilised country he would be locked up for the rest of his life.
oh and another thing there Limerick (poster) how in the fuck do you make a mistake when you follow someone down the road and try to decapitate them ?????????????

@ Limerick (the commenter not the city)IT took a life, can you give a good reason to do that, Happys family cant talk to him anymore, ITs family can, this MURDER happened in 2006 I am not sure was IT 14 when he committed the MURDER what is IT capable of now, LIFE should mean LIFE,

Exuse me Who do you think you are to be judging other people. You dont know this person so you cant judge him. Did you ever think of a mistake??No? Go away and grow up for yourself
Your The PIECE OF SHIT!!!!

Wow you really are a dumb piece of shit aren't you?

Jesus wept.Its people like you that are letting people like him walk the streets after a cold blooded murder.Your bleeding heart would soon change if it was your bleeding neck kiddo.Rise out of me and fuck right off.

Hopefully his family will receive justice for their lost.

That piece of shit that took his life, still has its life ahead of it.. regardlees of the 10 years that it recieved..
How much of that will it serve