Incident as described in the 1996 appeal of Kevin J. Moore:
On Saturday night, September 21, 1991, Moore and several of his companions gathered near a popular street corner, the intersection of Pikes Peak and Nevada Avenues in downtown Colorado Springs. Moore and his friends left a party they considered too crowded, for a location Moore liked to frequent. The group encircled a group of soldiers and began to shove and yell at them, with Moore ordering them, “Get off our block.” A fight ensued. Several soldiers got into their cars and fled. A soldier who was being beaten in the street escaped by leaping into a passerby’s car. Three soldiers got into another car. Through an open window Moore attempted to punch a person seated on the passenger side of the car. Moore kicked the side of the car, denting it before the car was driven away. Enraged, Moore began kicking in newspaper stands near the intersection.
Approximately twenty minutes after the soldier escaped into the passerby’s car, and ten minutes4 after the newspaper stands were kicked, another incident occurred. Two more soldiers approached the intersection walking north on Nevada Avenue. Layne Schmidtke (Schmidtke) and Joseph Reeves (Reeves) were walking through town to Schmidtke’s residence on Greenview Court. A young woman shouted a warning to them. Consequently, they made an effort to avoid Moore’s group on the sidewalk.
As Schmidtke and Reeves were stepping from the sidewalk onto the crosswalk, Moore shouted angry words to the effect of “Get off. What are you doing on my block?” or “This is our corner.” Reeves heard a commotion and saw the first blow to Schmidtke, a fist striking Schmidtke behind the right ear. Then Reeves was struck in the face.
Schmidtke and Reeves tried to retreat across Pikes Peak Avenue. Schmidtke fell to the street, whereupon Moore and others began to kick him about the head and body. Schmidtke curled up with his hands above his head, going limp and unconscious. The kicking continued. Likened to the force of kicking a football off the ground, the beating continued while Schmidtke lay motionless on the street. A crowd gathered. A witness shouted three times, “They’re killin’ ’im!” A group of girls in a tan car got out and screamed for the perpetrators to “Stop!”; “He’s had enough!” and someone said “Oh, my God, he’s dead, he’s dead!” Reeves was severely kicked while lying atop Schmidtke’s unconscious body, attempting to ward off more blows to his friend. A witness who pleaded with Moore to stop was told by him, “So, I don’t care. If you want to, you can be next.” An autopsy the following day ascribed the cause of Schmidtke’s death as blunt trauma to the head.
All defendants are now out of prison and hopefully living productive lives. Personally, I believe they should still be locked up, for life. They stomped the life out of a man who was a soldier, husband, father, son, brother and friend. Only one of them ever apologized for his part to Layne Schidtke’s loved ones, Anthony Phenix. The others apparently have no remorse for what they did. If they do, they need to tell his loved ones. They deserve that. Our Country also deserves this, since he was an active duty soldier, someone who risked his life for our Country and our freedom. I do not know if he was ever in a war zone, but honestly, that is irrelevant. He was a soldier, protecting us all. And for these people to literally stomp the life out of this man is horrendous. I hope they remember what they did every single day of their lives.
Soldier Pummeled as Group of Teen-Agers Looks On
Kevin J. Moore v The People of the State of Colorado 1996
Soldier’s killer denied prison release
Soldier’s killer denied prison release
Movies/Documentaries
Homicide Hunter: Slaughterhouse Six
Defendants
Anthony Lamar Phenix, 18 – convicted, sentenced to 20 years in prison
Kevin Jerome Moore, 18 – convicted of manslaughter, sentenced to 12 years in prisn
Dominic Peres, 17 – convicted, sentenced to 16 years in prison
Shawn Stancil, 16 – convicted, sentenced to 16 years in prison
Robert Julien Dean, 15 – convicted, sentenced to 4 years probation
Daniel Davis, 20 – pled guilty, sentenced to 6 years probation
