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Jury convicts panhandler of murder
DAYTON — Kevin Alsup, the panhandler accused of killing another homeless man, was convicted Thursday, July 16, of all indicted charges, including two counts of murder.
Montgomery County Common Pleas Judge Frances E. McGee charged the jury with the case at 3:15 p.m. The jury deliberated for more than five hours before convicted Alsup of five felonies: the two murder counts, two counts of felonious assault and one count of tampering with evidence.
The murder counts and the felonious assault counts will merge for sentencing purposes. Alsup, 33, will be sentenced on Aug. 18.
Alsup was accused of killing Floyd E. Drummond, 57, who was sleeping in his sleeping bag when someone bludgeoned him with a heavy rock on Aug. 16. Dayton police discovered his body, still inside the sleeping bag, at 2:22 a.m. on Maxwell Drive, which parallels Interstate 75 between First Street and Monument Avenue.
The Montgomery County Coroner’s Office ruled that Drummond, who suffered several skull fractures, died from blunt force trauma to the head.
Drummond was sleeping with his arms crossed, “not even seeing anything coming, and never ever had a chance,” assistant Montgomery County prosecutor Michael Brush told the jury during closing arguments on Thursday.
According to prosecutors, Alsup and another man, Larry Hudson, Jr., were panhandling together that day but separated briefly. Hudson panhandled under an I-75 overpass, then returned to Maxwell Drive, where he saw Alsup holding a heavy rock, which he picked up and slammed down at least twice.
As Hudson got closer, he saw Drummond’s body. Hudson then followed Alsup a block north to the shore of the Great Miami River, where Alsup hurled the rock into the water. Tests done at the Miami Valley Regional Crime Laboratory showed Drummond’s blood was on the shirt Alsup had been wearing that day, according to prosecutors.
The attack came because, earlier in the evening, Drummond refused to give Alsup a cigarette, Brush told the jury on Monday.
Assistant county public defender Michael Pentecost told the jury that Alsup merely found Drummond’s body after he was beaten by an unknown attacker. Alsup was curious after seeing a heavy rock on Drummond’s face and picked it up, Pentecost said.
Alsup then realized that his fingerprints could be on the rock, so he panicked and threw the rock in the river, Pentecost said. He didn’t contact police because Alsup, as a homeless man, feared contact with them, Pentecost said.
“Don’t convict him of felonious assault or murder because he didn’t call the police,” Pentecost said.
Both Hudson and Alsup testified during the trial. Pentecost said Hudson, who is serving a sentence for a felony conviction, was not credible, and that Hudson admitted that he never saw the rock hit Drummond’s head.
That was because Hudson couldn’t see Drummond from where he was standing, but walked up and saw the body after the attack, assistant county prosecutor Dan Brandt told the jury. That should add credibility to Hudson’s testimony, Brandt said.
“Larry told you what he saw,” Brandt said. “He told you nothing more and nothing less.”
Brandt also told the jury that two homicide detectives testified that, though Alsup always denied killing Drummond, he did slip up once when describing Drummond’s body by adding the phrase “when I hit him.” Alsup then changed the subject, Brandt said.
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