Man gets three years for assault of homeless man

FREEHOLD, N.J. — A video posted on YouTube a few days before Christmas in 2011 shows a young man striding purposefully into the woods as a cameraman asks what he’s about to do.

“About to go beat up this bum,” the man says.

And that’s what he does, punching and kicking a homeless man in the face, bloodying his nose, before wishing him a Merry Christmas.

That videotaped assault led to a three-year prison sentence Friday.

Taylor Giresi, whose lawyer said he has an IQ of 74 and numerous psychological issues, told a New Jersey Superior Court judge that he didn’t intend to hurt David Ivins. But he also said he failed to see what the big deal was.

“I already apologized to the homeless man; I knew him,” Giresi said in a halting monotone. “It wasn’t like anything serious. But when I put it on YouTube, it got serious. I wasn’t trying to hurt the man.”

Giresi pleaded guilty in January under the terms of a plea agreement to conspiring to use a juvenile to commit a crime. More serious charges, including assault, were dropped as part of the agreement.

Prosecutors and Giresi’s defence lawyer agreed Giresi was urged on and had his actions directed by a juvenile who filmed the attack and who was 17 at the time. The status of prosecution of the juvenile was not immediately available.