Melvin Harris III was sentenced more than a year after beating a man to death outside a QuikTrip in Phoenix.
PHOENIX — Editor’s Note: The above video is from previous coverage of the 2018 incident.
A Phoenix father was sentenced to eight years in prison for manslaughter after he beat a man to death outside a Phoenix convenience store in August 2018.
Melvin Harris III, 41, admitted to investigators he punched a man, later identified as Leon Armstrong, outside the QuikTrip on 19th and Dunlap avenues.
Harris had gone to the convenience store to pick up his daughter and her friends when Armstrong asked him for money in the parking lot, police say. After getting money from Harris, Armstrong went inside the QT store.
Harris’s daughter and her friends came out of the store and told him that Armstrong tried to get into his daughter’s bathroom stall inside.
Police documents say Harris went inside the store and “told a security guard he needed to take care of the situation, or (Harris) would do it himself.”
Harris then approached Armstrong outside the store and punched him in the face. With Armstrong on the ground, Harris continued punching and kicking him before driving off, according to police documents.
Armstrong was taken to a hospital with brain swelling and a fractured nose. He was unresponsive and later died, police say.
Harris pleaded guilty to manslaughter.
