A Baltimore man pleaded guilty Thursday to beating and stabbing his landlord, a local socialism activist currently running for the U.S. Senate despite ongoing health problems after the attack.
Henry Leon Davis, 43, was sentenced to 12 years in prison and five years? probation for attacking A. Robert Kaufman, his landlord, in June 2005 ? beating him over the head and stabbing him in the neck as Kaufman cowered in his apartment.
Thinking he was going to die there, Kaufman said, he wrote a note saying that the “guy from C killed me,” referencing the first-floor apartment where Davis lived at the time. Kaufman said he eventually got himself outside, where bystanders saw him and got help.
Kaufman, who said he suffers from kidney failure stemming from the attack, told Davis in court that if he were repentant for the attack and physically able, he should donate a kidney to Kaufman.
As Davis?s sister sat in the gallery brushing away tears, Kaufman struck a political tone in his victim?s impact statement before the court. Kaufman denounced the criminalization of drugs and inequities in society that he said might have led Davis to try to kill him. “I had all the opportunities. I don?t know how many you had,” Kaufman said.
Maybe if Davis could have gone to a clinic to treat his drug problems, Kaufman said, the attack wouldn?t have happened. He said the war on drugs is a “hypocritical piece of crack.”
Even so, Kaufman said he wouldn?t have hesitated to kill Davis that day if there?d been a gun or knife handy. And if the assailant should get out of jail, Davis should “stay the hell away from me.”
“It?s just been really hard,” said Renea Smith, still tearful as her brother was taken out of the courtroom after the plea. Noting she agreed with much of what Kaufman said about society and the justice system, Smith said that “incarcerating him is not going to help.”
