A 30-year-old Nigerian-born bouncer has been convicted of the involuntary manslaughter of an Irish man in Boston, United States on St. Patrick Day.
Sanusi Sadiq expressed remorse to the man’s friends and family as he was sentenced to serve a minimum of three years in prison.
“If I could take it, all that pain and hurt, I wish I could, I sincerely wish I could,” said Sadiq, of Quincy, Massachusetts, during a sentencing hearing last Monday.
The defendant told the court he replays his encounter with Barry Whelan (46), who emigrated to the US from his native Dublin in 2002, constantly in his head.
At a hearing at Boston’s Suffolk Superior Courthouse, Sadiq pleaded with Judge Mary Ames for leniency, saying the incident “feels like a nightmare that I can’t recover from.”
“I allowed words to lead me to an impulsive moment,” said Sadiq, adding that he is “embarrassed” and “disgusted” by his actions on the night.
The judge sentenced Sadiq to no less than three years and no more than six years in state prison, calling the case “an avoidable tragedy because Mr Sadiq had every opportunity and obligation to walk away”.
Whelan, who had been living in Woburn, was found seriously injured on a street in downtown Boston on St Patrick’s Day in 2023.
He was taken to hospital and treated for a skull fracture and brain haemorrhage, but d!ed three days later.
The court later heard that Sadiq was on his way to work at a nearby nightclub when he was approached by Whelan, who was intoxicated.
The two men did not know each another and Sadiq insisted that Whelan used racist slurs towards him.
CCTV footage showed that Whelan approached another Black man before approaching Sadiq twice.
In the second encounter, Sadiq engaged with Whelan and then struck him, causing the Irish man to fall back, before walking away.
The video footage did not include audio recordings.
A previous trial resulted in the hung jury.
“I didn’t intend for any of this to happen,” Sadiq said during a seven-minute address to the court during which his voice frequently broke.
Sadiq’s attorney Michael Chinman told the court his client did not have a prior criminal record and that Whelan was the “provocateur of the offence”.
He asked the judge for a two-year sentence.
Assistant District Attorney Jillian Bannister asked for a five to seven year sentence, insisting that Sadiq had “continued this interaction” and in doing so endangered Whelan’s life.
Darren Whelan, the d3ad man’s brother, attended the first trial in Boston last year, but watched the latest proceedings remotely from Dublin.
“Barry was a wonderful human being who was loved deeply by family and friends. We think about him every day,” Darren Whelan said in an impact statement read in court.
He insisted that the lesson of his brother’s d3ath is to “just walk away. It’s not worth it. Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me. It’s time that Mr Sadiq is held accountable for his actions.”
The hearing was attended by more than a dozen of Barry Whelan’s friends, including his former employer John Marsoobian, who told the court the deceased was “a gentle soul”.
He called Sadiq and his attorney “absolute garbage”.
In a statement, Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin Hayden noted that “bad decisions nearly three years ago resulted in one person losing his life, another person losing his freedom.”
“We far too often see the tragic results when people fail to make the simple decision to walk away,” he added.
Shortly after the sentencing hearing, Chinman filed a motion to appeal the verdict and sentence.
