Colored Man Beats ands Sodomizes a Woman to Death

[CitizensGone Crazy]

Ex-fighter charged in fatal beating
Albany,N.Y. -- Former boxer Jo-el Scott was standing over the body of a
59-year-old woman when they arrived at the scene, police said June 12,
2004
As she did almost every day, Dorothy Royal slipped on her blue coat
early Friday morning and pulled her small wire cart across the city from
Arbor Hill to the South End, collecting bottles and cans along the way
that she would trade for pocket change at Price Chopper.
Royal -- who was nicknamed "Sugar Gal," or "Shu-gal" for short, by
her friends and family -- stopped at the apartment of her close friend,
Joyce "Tooty" Terry, and they chatted over coffee and shared some
laughs. For Royal, a 59-year-old mother of three adult children, the
morning coffee ritual along Morton Avenue would be her last.
A short time later, according to city police, Royal was beaten and
sexually assaulted by a former boxing heavyweight contender, Jo-el
Scott. He has been charged with her murder.
The attack unfolded at about 8 a.m. after Royal said goodbye to Terry
and pulled her cart up Morton Avenue under beaming sunlight. The air was
crisp and morning joggers and a few lifeguards who were working on the
park's pool were buzzing around the hilly, 58-acre park.
As Royal descended a set of steep, concrete steps under trees and at the
edge of a rugby field, she was allegedly confronted by Scott, 33, a
former amateur boxing champion whose meteoric rise through the
professional ranks had once ignited the region's fight fans.
Scott, a convicted rapist who prosecutors contend was high on crack
cocaine following an all-night binge, allegedly grabbed Royal and began
pummeling her, breaking bones in her face as he sodomized her on the
ground. A passer-by heard Royal's screams and called 911, but two
arriving officers who said they saw Scott standing over her body were
unable to prevent her death.
Scott ran about 50 yards with the officers on his heels but was quickly
handcuffed after a brief struggle, police said. He was allegedly covered
in Royal's blood, according to sources close to the case.
Detectives quickly swarmed the park and crime-scene technicians sealed
off the area around Royal's body. But just over the hill and down Morton
Avenue, Royal's friends and her youngest child, 39-year-old Mary Ann
Royal, gathered on the steps in front of their apartments chatting and
oblivious of the events unfolding nearby.
When told of the attack just after 10 a.m., Mary Ann Royal and Terry,
who said she has known Dorothy Royal for almost 40 years, both began
crying.
"I thought you were going to tell us she had a seizure, because she's a
diabetic and suffers seizures," Terry said. "She comes and drinks coffee
with me almost every morning and I give her some of my bottles and then
she goes upstairs and collects some more. ... Then she'll walk to Price
Chopper."
The park's lifeguards said they would see Royal almost every morning
making her slow trip through the park searching the high grass for
bottles and cans that she'd drop in her small cart. She moved to Albany
from Virginia about 40 years ago and recently had been living in Ida
Yarbrough apartments with her oldest child, Margaret, 42.
"She was kind to everybody," said Dorothy Royal's nephew, Jeffrey
Philpot.
Prosecutors and police charged Scott with first-degree murder,
first-degree sodomy and resisting arrest after interviewing witnesses.
On his arrest sheet Friday, Scott listed his occupation as "boxer."
But the promise of boxing stardom ended for Scott in October 1996 when
he was sentenced to a 6-year prison term for rape and an unrelated crash
in which he left the scene of an accident that put a 4-year-old boy in a
coma for several days.
In March 1999, Scott was denied his first attempt at parole when the
review board ruled: "Your violent sexual behavior leads this board to
conclude your release presents a serious risk to the public's safety."
The following year, in June 2000, Scott was paroled from prison. But his
freedom was short-lived and 11 months later he was returned to prison
after an undisclosed parole violation, according to state officials. In
January 2002, he was released from prison a second time and his parole
supervision expired four months later.
Since then, he apparently has lived in Albany's South End, where he grew
up and where his mother, Rose, still lives and is active in politics,
said Carolyn McLaughlin, a city councilwoman who attended Scott's
arraignment in City Court late Friday afternoon.
At the arraignment, Scott's clothes had been taken from him for evidence
and he stood emotionless before City Court Judge Thomas Keefe. Scott,
who is powerfully built and stands 6 feet 2 inches, said nothing as
Keefe ordered him held without bail pending a review of the case on
Tuesday by a grand jury.
It's not clear if Scott knew Royal, who friends said was soft-spoken and
never married. She once worked in day care, but in recent years scraped
by returning bottles and with help from her family, her relatives said.
Scott grew up in the city's scruffy South End with his three brothers
and two sisters. He was the oldest sibling and his father was not around
when he was growing up, his relatives have said. His current address is
on Garland Place off Route 9W, according to his arrest report.
Mayor Jerry Jennings, a former Albany High School assistant principal
who knew Scott when he attended classes there, enthusiastically followed
his boxing successes like many other local elected officials.
Jennings, who drove to Lincoln Park just as Royal's body was removed by
a coroner, said he still knew Scott enough to say "hi" when they met in
passing.
Vladimir Koshnitsky, who was Scott's trainer during his amateur career
and the early days of his professional career, was shocked when he heard
the news.
"I can't talk about it, I'm speechless," said Koshnitsky, the director
of the Albany City Boxing Program. "I have not seen him in a long time.
I have to swallow this before I say anything."
As an amateur, Scott had a record of 23-3, winning the super heavyweight
division at the 1993 U.S. Amateur Boxing championships in Colorado
Springs. He then turned pro, winning his first 16 fights before
finishing 20-2, with 19 knockouts. His last fight was Aug. 26 at the
Sandia Casino in Albuquerque, N.M. He lost by technical knockout to Ray
Austin.
The last time he fought in the Capital Region was July 7, 1994, his
sixth fight as a professional.
Bruce Trampler, the matchmaker for Top Rank Inc. in Las Vegas, which
once promoted Scott's career along with fighters such as Oscar De La
Hoya, Tommy Hearns, Sugar Ray Leonard and George Foreman, was stunned by
Scott's arrest.
"This is a shocker," Trampler said from his Las Vegas office. "Early on
we thought he had a chance to really make a name for himself in the
heavyweight division; he certainly had the capability to beat a lot of
guys. I mean, I am not going to pass judgment on him because I know he
had a lot of issues. Anything bad that would happen to him, that would
not surprise me."
When Scott was signed by Top Rank, its president, Bob Arum, predicted
big things.
"Remember his name, because very soon everyone in the world will know
who he is."