A former military medical corpsman has been sentenced to 80 years in prison after being found guilty of beating to death a mentally ill man in a Catonsville bar last year.
Prosecutors said Benjamin W. Shorter, 42, became angry that someone had jokingly placed handcuffs on his female companion while they were drinking at Morsberger's Tavern, and he took it out on Franklin J. Schissler, 66, a regular at the bar who lived at the Spring Grove Hospital Center, a psychiatric facility nearby.
A Baltimore County jury concluded on May 20 that Shorter, after chasing the victim into the men's room, had pummeled him with such force that he caused Schissler's death. Prosecutors said that rather than render medical aid to the victim, as he had been trained to do in the military, Shorter fled. He was arrested 10 hours later after attending a barbecue.
Assistant State's Attorney Matthew H. Darnbrough said no witnesses corroborated Shorter's account that Schissler had started the fight and that Shorter was defending himself during the March 29, 2009, altercation. Darnbrough showed the jury a photo of a single scratch on the left arm of the defendant, who was a trim and muscular 200 pounds.
"Mr. Shorter brutally beat the disabled victim," Darnbrough wrote in an e-mail Wednesday. "Moreover, Mr. Shorter has never shown any form of genuine remorse for his actions."
The prosecutor asked Circuit Judge Michael J. Finifter to impose a prison term of life without parole. Instead, on July 15, the judge sentenced Shorter to life in prison with all but 80 years suspended.
Darnbrough described the victim as an obese man who had been treated his entire adult life for paranoid schizophrenia but who, around the time of his death, had been well enough to be allowed out of the Spring Grove facility. Patrons of Morsberger's Tavern said they often saw Schissler at the bar, sipping beer quietly.
Patrons testified at Shorter's trial that he lost his temper during an incident, which started as a joke, involving Elaine M. Monet, whom Shorter — despite his marriage to a woman in Virginia — referred to as his girlfriend. When another person at the bar, also in jest, blamed Schissler for handcuffing Monet, witnesses said, Shorter followed him into the restroom and began beating and kicking him.
"You're killing him!" Henry Coates, a witness, recalled yelling at Shorter.
"No, I'm just putting him to sleep," Coates said Shorter replied.
An autopsy determined that Schissler, who suffered from cardiovascular disease, died of a heart attack caused by the stress of the assault.
nick.madigan@baltsun.com