3rd man pleads guilty in homeless man's murder

 Updated at 7:07 p.m.

One of the three men who killed her brother last summer looked Lisa Williams in the eyes during court Friday and said her brother "didn't deserve it."

Jason Allen Blackmon, 22, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder in the death of 41-year-old Michael Kozak. Blackmon was sentenced to 37½ to 46½ years in prison.

With a sobbing mother sitting behind him, Blackmon struggled to keep from crying himself throughout the court hearing but broke down more than once.

Williams also cried when prosecutors detailed her brother's gruesome death at Blackmon's hands.

"Just because I pray for you every day doesn't mean I've forgiven you," she told Blackmon before his sentencing. "I just hope God does."

Blackmon and two co-defendants who have already pleaded guilty in court attacked Kozak in his homeless camp behind Piney Green Shopping Center on June 23, 2008.

Jay Oldaker, 28, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in February and promised to testify for the prosecution. His sentence will be decided later this month.

Dustin Newcome, 23, pleaded guilty in April to second-degree murder. He was sentenced to 24 to 29 years in prison.

The three said they attacked Kozak because he supposedly "French kissed a 9-year-old female" at a party a few days earlier, prosecutors said.

Blackmon and the others admitted going to Kozak's camp where they drank alcohol with him and then confronted him about the incident. The three beat Kozak with pieces of pipe, kicked and stomped him and stabbed him with a knife.

"After all of that, Dusty grabbed a beer bottle and broke it against a tree and handed it to me and said 'gut him,'" Blackmon wrote in a statement for investigators. "After that was done, we all sat down and drank a beer while we talked and laughed about it."

Employees at the shopping center found Kozak's body a couple of days later, and an investigation by Jacksonville police detectives and tips from Crime Stoppers turned up Blackmon and the others as suspects.

Blackmon and Oldaker had been trying to sell plasma and stolen puppies to raise money to flee Jacksonville. A week after Kozak's death, they were arrested on the way out of town, according to police reports.

Blackmon's attorney, Jacksonville lawyer Wally Paramore, said his client had suffered from mental issues since he was 7.

Paramore said Blackmon dropped out of school in the ninth grade, had an IQ of 68, did not have a driver's license, couldn't keep a job, had bad personal hygiene and couldn't cook for himself.

"The system failed him," Paramore said.

Despite all of that, Blackmon still showed remorse for killing Kozak, Paramore said, adding that Blackmon would often curl up in a fetal position during legal sessions.

"Mr. Blackmon would benefit from anti-psychotic pills," Paramore told the court.

Senior Resident Onslow County Superior Court Judge Charles Henry questioned Paramore whether Blackmon understood his plea arraignment.

"I have explained to my client, who is 22, that he in will be incarcerated the rest of his 20s, in his 30s he will be incarcerated, in his 40s he will still be incarcerated and much of his 50s he will be incarcerated," Paramore responded.

After the hearing, Williams and Blackmon's mother met in the center aisle of the courtroom and gave each other a long hug.

"Emotions were strong on both sides," said Senior Assistant District Attorney Ernie Lee, adding it was highly unusual to see family from both sides embrace and speak after court.

Lee said he is pleased to see three defendants in the same murder case be adjudicated within a year of the crime.

Contact Lindell Kay at 910-219-8456. Read his blog at http://onslowcrime.encblogs.com.