An upstate New York man has been sentenced to 50 years in prison for the 2023 kidnapping and torture of a man he once considered a friend.
Shah Powell, 36, was found guilty of brutally assaulting Jhomiel Brown and holding him hostage in a shed in DeWitt, Onondaga County, just east of Syracuse, on Sept. 24, 2023.
Brown, who was beaten with metal poles, bitten and burned with cigarettes, had his front teeth ripped out with pliers, prosecutors said. He passed out from the beating but later managed to escape by using one of his ripped-out teeth to cut through the duct tape used to restrain him.
Prosecutors had offered Powell a plea deal under which he would spend 10 years in prison if he pleaded guilty, which he refused.
During the trial, he told the court that Brown’s injuries were the result of a drug deal-related fight, which prosecutors said was a lie, Syracuse.com reported.
“This is a man who was not at all prepared to accept what he did to another human being,” prosecutor Jed Hudson told Judge Matthew Doran on Wednesday, asking the judge to sentence him to 50 years.
Defense attorney Susan Carey urged the judge not to impose a harsher sentence on Powell for going to trial than he would have received if he had accepted the plea deal.
Before being sentenced, Powell told the court that he punishes himself “more than anything.”
“Jamal Brown was my friend at one point,” he told the judge. “He was my friend, and what I’m involved in right now should never have happened.”
Powell addressed the victim’s family and repeatedly apologized for his actions. He also apologized to his own family.
“My mom is here … and I feel like I let her down. I let all my family down because I put myself in this situation,” Powell said before being sentenced to 50 years in prison.
“This sentence is not punishing Mr. Powell for going to trial,” Doran said. “It is punishing Mr. Powell for the completely barbaric assault on Mr. Brown.”
In July, a woman accused of acting as the getaway driver in the kidnapping was sentenced to seven years behind bars.
