While living in a dorm at college you will get into a lot of quibbles and arguments with your peers.
Sometimes it is over an approach for an assignment, oftentimes it is about something annoying your roommate is doing, and occasionally it is about a romantic relationship.
However, one argument with a roommate was over the most trivial of topics and had the harshest of reactions.
Fox News reported:
“A former University of Akron student who was convicted of fatally stabbing his roommate over a fast-food argument was granted early release after only serving 10 months of his three-year sentence.”
I don’t care if it was filet mignon from the fanciest restaurant in town, you don’t harm someone over food.
Stabbing someone is an intimate form of killing someone. It was not reported by the news outlets, but it seems Kendal Scheid would have to be dealing with some mental health issues in order to carry out such a gruesome act, and over food nonetheless.
The food argument was concerning a dispute over some Arby’s food. Scheid, who was drunk, then stabbed Unternaher.
He was sent to the hospital for his injuries, but died of complications two days later, according to the Akron Beacon Journal.
Scheid, 24, has only spent 10 months of a mere three-year sentence when he was granted a release last Tuesday by Summit County Common Pleas Judge Mary Margaret Rowlands, according to Fox News.
Judge Rowlands had already “pledged” to give Scheid an early release when he was sentenced in December if he “behaved” while incarcerated, according to the Akron Beacon Journal.
This seems like an inappropriate exchange in front of grieving parents who had just lost their son.
Scheid’s innocent victim, Duncan Unternaher was only a young college student himself when he met his early demise in December of 2016 by his careless roommate.
As one would assume, the victim’s parents are extremely upset by the short sentencing of their son’s attacker.
Gregory Unternaher, Duncan’s grieving father, told the Akron Beacon Journal, that “A 23-year-old son’s life is worth more than 10 months in jail.”
At the hearing for an early release, Gregory pleaded with the judge not to release Scheid, feeling that his time was not properly served.
Gregory lamented, “We are functioning but we hurt daily.” Unternaher continued, “We will hurt daily for the rest of our lives. Please don’t increase our pain by letting him out.”, Fox News reported.
Don Malarcik, Scheid’s attorney, defended the early release by saying that he was a “model prisoner”, and that he felt bad about stabbing his roommate to death.
I would hope that he did feel bad, or there would be some serious questions about Scheid’s state of mind.
It is frightening that this was a sound argument to the judge, convincing her to release a murderer back into society, to potentially attend another college with another unsuspecting roommate.
There needs to be accountability for one’s actions. If all we did was have to apologize after every illegal act to receive a get out of jail free card, the justice system would be completely useless.
Scheid was put on probation for four years by the judge, which seems like a little less than a slap on the wrist for killing someone.
Not to mention, being on probation does not keep a potentially dangerous man off the streets, like being convicted is supposed to do.
Scheid’s attorney also said that he “has good insight into his previous mistakes and shows genuine remorse.”
Malarcik continued to try and uplift the young murderer by bragging that he attends AA meetings and has taken some business courses online.
Many inmates take online courses and attend meetings for their addictions, but their crimes don’t go away, and their sentences are not rescinded.
We are not able to see the heart of Scheid and tell if he has truly felt remorse, but that should have no bearings on action and consequence when it comes to the judiciary process.
Scheid was lightly sentenced for a big offense and still got out of that. If Judge Rowlands continues on this path, there could be more murderers that are “pledged” an early release just for playing nice in prison.
Please let us know in the comments section if you think that Scheid served his sentence appropriately, and what effect this type of sentencing will have on society.