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Witness Recalls Chaos Before Local Man's Beating Death

Coach Accused Of Beating Man Over $5 Parking Ticket

POSTED: 6:34 pm EDT April 26, 2006

The trial continued Wednesday for a local youth coach accused of beating another man to death over a $5 parking ticket.

The court heard emotional testimony from one woman who said she was in the middle of a free-for-all that left Robert Abrams dead, NewsChannel5 reported.

Richard Haught is now on trial, charged with involuntary manslaughter in Abrams' death.

Witness Carlise Shackleford started to break down when she recalled tempers flaring in a baseball field parking lot last July.

She said parents were yelling and screaming over paying a $5 parking fee. Shakleford testified seeing Haught giving orders to a couple of his players.

"He pointed over there and said, 'Get your (expletive) money back that they stole from you,' and those two boys took bats out of their bags, one each, and they walked into the crowd of chaos," said Shakleford.

She said, "He had his baseball bat in the air and he tried to take a swing and my boy's head."

Shakleford said that in the mayhem, she saw Abrams go down, but she didn't see who hit him.

"When he hit the ground his eyes rolled back in his head. He was still upright when he hit the ground. I started tapping his face to tell him to stay with me, but he never came to," she said.

Shakleford said she screamed for help but the crowd was focused on their $5 refunds.

"I hollered, 'Somebody call 911, somebody call 911.' And one lady … said, 'We'll call 911 when we know we got our money back.'"

So far, nobody testified that they saw who or what exactly caused Abrams to collapse.

If convicted, Haught could get up to 5½ years in prison.





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