It’s happened again.
Remember the violent Karen in Georgia who was sentenced to life in prison after she was convicted of murdering a 62-year-old Black man who was involved in a minor hit-and-run accident?
Nearly a month later, Dean Kapsalis, a white man, was also sentenced to life in prison after he was convicted of killing a Black man, according to The Boston Globe. Kapsalis was heard shouting racial slurs at his victim before ending his life.
In January 2021, 56-year-old Kapsalis got into an argument with Henry Tapia, a 34-year-old Black man, over turn signals in Belmont, Mass. Both men got out of their car and confronted each other. The heated argument escalated when Kapsalis started yelling racial slurs at Tapia. Kapsalis then got in his car and hit Tapia with his pickup truck before fleeing the scene, according to the Globe.
Tapia suffered life-threatening injuries and died while at Massachusetts General Hospital. He left behind a girlfriend and three children.
Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan argued during the trial that the last thing Tapia heard was “words that were meant to intimidate and threaten him because of who he was, a person of color.” As a result, Kapsalis was found guilty on charges of second-degree murder and violation of constitutional rights in May 2023.
On Wednesday, he was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 15 years.
More from the Boston Globe:
Before delivering the sentence, Judge David A. Deakin thanked family and friends from both sides for coming, and stressed that while his decision must be “proportional to the crimes committed,” the sentence “must first and foremost take into account the loss of Mr. Tapia’s life.”
Turning to Tapia’s family, he said, “I am well aware that no sentence can give them what they most want which is to have Mr. Tapia back. … If I could, I wouldn’t do anything other than that.”
The sentencing occurred nearly three years to the day that Tapia was killed on Jan. 19, 2021.