Lloyd Bright pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter Monday in connection with the death of 61-year-old Darryl Eugene Sweet Sr. In exchange, prosecutors agreed to drop the initial charge of second-degree murder and will recommend Bright serve a sentence of 6 to 8 years in prison.
At the hearing Monday, Bright said he didn’t know Sweet had died until the day after their altercation, and that he wanted to take responsibility for his actions.
“I was like, whoa, dead?” Bright told the court. “I didn’t even know that. I went through a whole lot of stress over this.”
Medical personnel found Sweet unconscious and unresponsive in the 3800 block of Minnesota Avenue Northeast on July 26, 2012. Sweet died the following day and a medical examiner determined his cause of death to be blunt force trauma to the head.
According to the proffer of facts, surveillance video from the scene of the incident captured Bright approaching Sweet in the 3800 block of Minnesota Avenue NE and then Sweet lying on the sidewalk. A witness to the event told authorities that Bright and Sweet had argued over money, and that Bright had punched Sweet.
Bright was arrested Oct. 5, 2012, and told police that he and Sweet were having an argument when he hit Sweet once with an open hand, causing him to fall onto the sidewalk.
In entering his guilty plea Monday, Bright explained to Judge Herbert Dixon that both he and Sweet were on drugs at the time of the incident. Bright also said that he slapped Sweet and then ran away, but didn’t know that Sweet had died until the next day.
Bright is scheduled to be sentenced on October 25.
Plea documents have been added to this post below.
