A Niagara Falls man will likely spend the rest of his life in prison for killing two women. 54 year old Damien Prophet appeared in Erie County Court Monday morning, sentenced to two consecutive terms of 25 years to life in prison. He murdered two Buffalo women... their deaths happening more than a decade apart.
Relatives and friends of the two victims filled the courtroom...pushing for the maximum prison sentence for Prophet. "I'm asking on the part of her kids and her friends and her family to give him the most time you can give him," said Lotoya Humber, Mechelle Hicks' goddaughter.
And Prophet does get the max... 50 years to life in prison ...for the 2006 murder of Mechelle Hicks and the 1995 murder of Kimberly Warren. The prostitutes' bodies were found on the same Buffalo street -- Rapin Place.
Prophet, who's real name is Harold Bonner, was their pimp. Prosecutor Frank Sedita, III says Prophet controlled the women by giving them crack cocaine. "And when they didn't do what he wanted them to do, he perpetrated unspeakable violence upon them. He beat them and strangled them. He electrocuted them. And when that wouldn't work he killed them."
"I can tell you these are some of the most heinous crimes I've seen," said Erie County Court Judge Michael D'Amico.
D'Amico denied a motion filed by defense attorney E. Cary Cantwell to throw out Prophet's conviction. " Many of the witnesses against him were not law enforcement officers but either co-conspirators allegedly or people who were engaged in prostitution," said Cantwell.
Prophet shows no emotion as he learns his fate and spectators clap as he's led out of the courtroom. "He got just what he deserved. Justice was served. Another killer off the streets," said Kenneth Warren, Mechelle Warren's father.
"I knew he did it. Every time I'd see him stalking, he used to be watching me. I think he was trying to get me too because he knew I knew," said Stephanie Warren, Mechelle Warren's sister.
What they don't know...is why he killed the women.
