The usual agitators and Social Justice Warriors AWOL.
Timothy Loper Sr. approached the Superior Court judge in Camden Thursday wearing a pin with a picture of his son, once a U.S. Marine, in uniform.
A member of the court staff asked Loper if he wanted to sit before he spoke about life since his son, Timothy Loper Jr., 27, was fatally shot outside a Camden bar in December 2013. The father chose to stand.
“I haven’t slept a full night in a year and seven months. I just can’t understand,” he said, before trailing off in silence as he tried to hold back tears.
Not long after the brief speech, Judge Gwendolyn Blue sentenced Darrell Crone — who claimed innocence until the end — to 70 years in prison.
Prosecutors said Crone, 33, an aspiring boxer, shot Loper Jr. in the back outside the 20 Horse Tavern at Second and Spruce streets. Loper Jr., an ex-Marine who served in Afghanistan, had been at the bar with high school friends. Authorities said Loper Jr. was shot while trying to break up a fight over a young woman.
Crone displayed little emotion during the sentencing other than when he asked Blue to delay it so he could prove he was innocent.
“I didn’t murder nobody,” he said. “It’s on camera. I didn’t do anything.”
Then Crone turned toward nearly a dozen of Loper Jr.’s family members, including his father, and said: “I’m sorry for ya’ll’s loss.” But, he told them, it had nothing to do with him.
Blue told Crone to address his concerns in an appellate court. She rattled off a long list of his prior arrests, which dated back to the late ’90s and included unlawful possession of a weapon.