The man who barged into a nail salon and gunned down a 10-year-old boy during a robbery will spend the rest of his life behind bars in prison, a judge ruled Tuesday morning.<\/p>\n
Anthawn Ragan Jr., 31, was shaking and moving his lips as he heard his sentence for the Nov. 22, 2013, murder of 10-year-old Aaron Vu at his parents\u2019 Hong Kong Nails salon in northwest Miami-Dade. Ragan, who sat beside his attorney Adam Goodman, waived his right to a jury trial \u2014 an unusual move for a defendant facing execution.<\/p>\n
Instead, Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Marisa Tinkler Mendez decided whether Ragan deserved life or death for the slaying, which galvanized many in South Florida.<\/p>\n
Staring at Ragan, Tinkler Mendez said he was \u201cundoubtably a danger to society,\u201d but added that the totality of the circumstances did not warrant the death penalty. The judge pointed out Ragan\u2019s well-documented history of mental and behavioral issues and learning disabilities.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlthough the three-week crime spree [that] culminated in death of Aaron Vu in the robbery of Hong Kong nail salon was horrific, this was [the] result of a seriously compromised and a neurologically impaired individual,\u201d the judge said.<\/p>\n
Several of Aaron\u2019s loved ones wept as Tinkler Mendez meted out the sentence. About two dozen relatives and supporters, including customers of the nail salon, packed the right side of the courtroom on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
After the sentencing, Aaron\u2019s father Hai Nam Vu told reporters attending the proceeding was the hardest thing in his life \u2014 aside from losing his son.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs long as he\u2019s not out ever in public to hurt another innocent person, that\u2019s the main thing I wanted,\u201d Vu said.<\/p>\n
During the trial, Vu recounted his terror when an ordinary Friday at his family-owned nail salon ended with Ragan and another man, who remains unidentified, gunning down Vu\u2019s 10-year-old son as he watched.<\/p>\n
After stealing more than $300 in cash and jewelry from customers and employees, the two gunmen were on their way out when one turned and fired twice inside the salon, hitting both Vu and Aaron. While Vu survived, Aaron, who loved Street Fighter action figures and Beats by Dre headphones, didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
Vu said his family has been torn apart by Aaron\u2019s murder, but Vu forgave Ragan in court because he said his son would have done so.<\/p>\n
\u201cNothing is going to bring my son back…, but I\u2019m thankful that at least he\u2019ll be sent to prison where he\u2019ll never hurt another innocent person again,\u201d Vu said on the stand.<\/p>\n
Tuesday was the second time Ragan was spared from the death penalty \u2014 also for an offense stemming from his 2013 crime wave.<\/p>\n
Last year, a jury sentenced Ragan to a lifetime behind bars for the execution-style murder of Luis Miguel Perez, a small-time drug dealer, at a Miami motel. Tinkler Mendez presided over that case, too.<\/p>\n
In recent months, two out of three Miami death penalty cases ended with the defendants being sentenced to life over death. Those cases were left to juries, which returned life verdicts.<\/p>\n
Outside the courtroom, defense attorney Tony Moss said the life sentence was part of a \u201cwell-thought-out decision\u201d by the judge.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was not a client deserving of the death penalty with… his neurological deficits,\u201d Moss said.<\/p>\n
During opening statements, Moss recounted Ragan\u2019s broken upbringing: Ragan\u2019s father was locked up for life after being convicted of murder while Ragan was still in his mother\u2019s womb. (Moss defended Ragan\u2019s father in a murder case in the 1990s.) Ragan was exposed to crime from an early age, and his family members were absent during his upbringing, many serving time for serious crimes, Moss said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat a life sentence can provide can be finality,\u201d Moss said. \u201cThis will be the last court proceeding they will ever have to attend.\u201d<\/p>\n
Prosecutor Scott Warfman argued that the case warrants the death penalty despite the murder not being carried out in a heinous, atrocious or cruel manner \u2014 or being committed with heightened premeditation. The killing, Warfman added, shattered Aaron\u2019s family.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey [suffer] because of what Mr. Ragan has done,\u201d Warfman said. \u201cThey were living their life until Mr. Ragan absolutely obliterated that life.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The man who barged into a nail salon and gunned down a 10-year-old boy during a robbery will…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":191731,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[89393,89394,408,28,30,29,89397,89392,1064,89398,71314,89396,89395],"class_list":["post-191730","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-aaron-vu","tag-anthawn-ragan-jr","tag-death-penalty","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-hai-nam-vu","tag-marisa-tinkler-mendez","tag-miami-dade","tag-miami-dade-circuit-court-judge","tag-nail-salon","tag-ragan-jr","tag-tinkler-mendez"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191730","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=191730"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191730\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/191731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=191730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=191730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=191730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}