Tyshawn Watson, convicted of beating Zachariah El Sharif into a coma at Roma Pizza on August 19th, 2024, challenged Judge Christine Johnson during sentencing after prosecutors dropped attempted murder charges. The hosts argue the plea deal reflects systemic bias and "Black fragility," criticizing the judge for imposing only 17 years instead of the suggested 40. Ultimately, the discussion highlights perceived failures in holding Black defendants accountable for violent crimes while questioning whether judicial leniency stems from racial oppression rather than legal merit. [Automatically generated summary]
Transcriber: nvidia/parakeet-tdt-0.6b-v2, sat-12l-sm, and large-v3-turbo
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Lenient Sentencing for Assault00:04:11
This black guy shows up to his, well, he's at his sentencing, right?
He looks violent.
Yeah.
Just by looking at him.
Yeah.
And he has a plea agreement.
Why do people keep giving these people plea agreements?
Yeah, in this video of this crime.
But anyway, they give him a plea agreement.
But then this guy has the audacity to start arguing with the judge about the sentence.
Watch this.
This is crazy.
Even though he's agreed to the plea agreement.
Right.
Right now at 5.30, a heated exchange in the courtroom between a defendant and the judge as that man was sentenced for beating a pizza shop manager into a coma.
Good evening.
I'm Christine Johnson.
Welcome back.
I'm Jessica Moore.
The 2024 attack happened after the manager told the man he couldn't have his pit bull inside the restaurant.
Alice Gaynor shows us some of the video of the attack that was played in the courtroom.
And we do need to warn you, it is disturbing.
Tyshawn Watson was originally indicted on attempted murder and four counts of assault.
He pleaded guilty to two counts of assault and during sentencing told the judge he took accountability by staying on scene.
Wait a minute.
Wait a minute.
Why did he drop the attempted murder?
The video y'all about to see, he was trying to take this man's life.
So why did they drop the charges?
It's no jury in their right mind will say, hey, this is just simple assault.
He tried to unlive this man.
Yeah.
How do you turn ordering a pizza into a life or death situation?
Yeah.
And why is this just simple assault?
That's what they're trying to...
Well, these charges.
I think it's aggravated assault.
No, man, that's nothing compared to what this guy did.
This judge is being way too lenient.
Yeah.
This dude should get at least 40 years.
At least.
Well, he was in a coma, but watch it saw on video.
But if we watched the video right now, you'd see the pizza shop manager was irate, and I was telling him to calm down.
This pizza manager is irate.
Yeah, so he's saying he's the instigator.
But this is the video.
Just look at the video.
The judge said, I watched the video.
You went around the counter.
If you don't want to take responsibility, Watson kept interjecting.
The judge then said, I'd be prepared to play that video right now.
And if I'm right and you're wrong, I'd take back your plea and go to trial.
The video from Roma Pizza on Fifth Avenue between 19th and 20th Streets taken the night of August 19th, 2024 after 9.45 shows Watson enter with his pit bull off leash.
He buys pizza and a drink and sits in the back.
Prosecutors say the manager tells him multiple times he's not allowed to have the dog in the restaurant.
So this is a lot of times when you see interactions like violent interactions with blacks, they feel like they've been disrespected.
And this dude is totally disrespect.
This dude is totally disrespecting this black dude.
He's berating him in front of all these people.
This is how they see it.
That's how they see it.
Because there's women.
These women, this guy, just by simply enforcing his rules, saying, hey, we don't allow pets in here unless it's a service animal.
They take it as disrespect.
Yeah, it's a cultural thing with black people.
They don't like authority.
And when you tell them what to do, it's disrespect.
And we're being dead serious, right?
Yeah.
This is how you turn into order of pizza into a life or death situation.
Just disrespect a black man.
Yeah.
A few minutes later, Watson gathers his things and is at the counter speaking with the manager.
He walks around the counter and strikes Zachariah El Sharif, known as Zach.
The brutal attack, which included the dog biting El Sharif, lasted around four minutes.
His dog jumped in.
It lasted for four minutes.
As prosecutors say he pleaded with Watson to stop when he attempted to escape.
Pizza guy's trying to run out of his own store.
Looks like nobody's there to help him.
Yeah.
So he runs out of the store, and this damn Terminator comes out after him.
Prosecutors say Watson put him in a chokehold and tackled him to the ground, stomping on his head.
That's a temptation.
Just a bloodiest Facebook.
Yeah, that's attempted unaliving right there.
Yeah.
I think this guy works there.
He's just watching.
It's crazy.
I don't know why they dropped the attempted murder that you shouldn't have done.
Watson walked back in.
Did you see that dude's face?
Yeah, he looked crazy.
Friends Choking on Conscience00:04:06
Look at that.
On his head.
Watson and walked back in and sat.
He looking back at him.
The dude is unconscious.
He's in a coma right now.
Yeah, yeah.
Well, he's knocked out.
In the dining area until he was arrested.
El Sharif was unresponsive, in a coma for two weeks, treated for two months in the hospital for bruising, bone fractures, and a traumatic brain injury.
They dropped those charges down because it's a black guy.
Yeah.
That's just the way it works in these blue cities.
Yeah.
Black fragility.
They don't.
If black people really cared about crime in their neighborhoods, they would take these opportunities and lock these people up and throw away the key because this makes black people safer.
But since they don't say it that way, they see is holding black people accountable.
They see that as oppression.
They see it as slavery.
And white supremacy.
And white supremacy, they'll smack on the wrist.
Oh, you don't know any better.
You was drunk.
Oh, man.
And you got to deal with all these white people all the time.
Yeah.
They're oppressing you.
Yeah, you've been calling it.
Yeah, they're calling you the N-word all the time.
Oh, that's oppression, man.
I'm going to be a little lenient on you because you're black.
They say he made a miraculous recovery.
The judge turned back to Watson and asked a series of questions, trying to decide if he was remorseful.
Watson, who says he was intoxicated that night, said he had a ton of remorse.
How can you have remorse for something you did when you have no conscience?
Does it look like this dude has a conscience when he did what he did?
Yeah.
And you can't teach a conscience.
So if you don't have a conscience, how do you show remorse or empathy for other people?
You can't.
You don't have the capacity to.
That's just a front.
That's a lie.
That dude doesn't have.
That dude's probably choking about what he did to that guy.
Yeah.
He's probably laughing about it to his sub-Saharan inmates.
The judge called Watson's actions heinous.
She sentenced him to 17 years in prison, saying that whenever he had a parole hearing, I'll use everything in my power to make sure you stay in the entire 17 years.
Should have never dropped the charges on an attempted unalivon.
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
Like, you're going to remember this guy.
You're dealing with like probably 500 sub-Saharans a day.
You're going to forget all about this guy.
Because at this point, all these people are going to start to look alike to you.
And I know the judicial system is overwhelmed.
You're not going to hold that dude accountable.
You're not going to show up at his hearings for early release or anything.
You're not going to do that.
No, you're not.
You should have threw the book at him when you had the chance.
If I was a judge, man, I'd have gave him 40 years just for being black.
What?
I caught the end of that.
That I'm going to add Rico charges.
I'm throwing in Rico charges.
You can't do that, Your Honor.
Yeah, I can.
He's black.
Yeah, man, that's a sad, horrible story.
Yeah, I still don't.
I don't understand why these judges are so lenient.
Well, 17 years is not lenient.
That dude, Keith, it's amazing that guy's still alive.
I think his injuries justify attempted murder charges.
Why would you drop that?
This dude's going to, it's very possible.
This dude's going to be out in like eight years.
Well, then he's going to show back up again with a pet bull.
He's going to walk inside of a pizza restaurant.
And some poor guy is going to be there.
Hey, sir, you can't have your dog in here.
He's going to be like, do something.
Seen it a million times.
Had a whole lot of black friends growing up.
I was like, what's wrong with these people?
I had some good black friends, man.
Joey has some good black friends, but a majority of them.
All the trauma I ever got involved in, it was typically with my black friends.
You know why it happened?
It was self-inflicted.
Yeah, they don't have fathers.
They didn't have a father, man.
You saying this dude's fatherless?
I don't think he has a father, mother, or grandmother.
This dude is nuts.
This dude probably just got out of the mental institution.