• Lori Pilger – 4 hrs ago – May 31, 2024 – Lincoln Journal Star

James Baylor

The Killer

My cmnt: How can this man be an Army veteran? What has Joe Biden and the Leftist, Woke democrats done to our military? Are they indoctrinating them in Lib-think? How else could he cold-bloodedly sucker-punch this small and harmless man, continue to rain blows on him while defenseless on the ground and then make up this totally bullshit story about what happened. He is not only a murderer but a complete liar who still refuses to admit to what he did. Thank God we have video tape or this lying, dangerous man might still be roaming the streets.

My cmnt: Did this douche-bag even work? There’s no mention of a job or employment or what he did for a living.

My cmnt: And what kind of defense attorney counsels his client to bald-face lie in an attempt to get him off after he has killed an innocent man? A defense attorney’s job is to make sure his client gets a fair and just trial, not to try to get him off regardless of the facts. Guarantee both of them voted for Biden!

The Victim

A 23-year-old Lincoln man went to prison Friday, calling his assault on a stranger on a downtown street corner last August an “honest mistake,” which cost James Baylor his life.

“For that, I take full responsibility,” Angel Rodriguez Alvis said. “I am not proud nor am I content with my actions, but rather embarrassed and ashamed of them.”

He said he wished every day he could take back what he did, go back and change the events of that night.

“It’s hard to accept the reality knowing that I’ve killed Mr. Baylor,” Alvis said. 

His attorney, Nathan Sohriakoff, took issue with how the prosecution has described the incident, saying Alvis, an Army veteran who served tours in Poland and Latvia, had heard a commotion behind him, thought the stranger was accosting two 18-year-old girls with him and was “being a defender.”

“My client saw a threat, responded to a threat and was wrong,” Sohriakoff said, calling it a terrible mistake.

He said Alvis charged at Baylor, and with that charge, ended Baylor’s life. But he was doing what he thought was right in that moment.

Chief Deputy Lancaster County Attorney Chris Turner said that wasn’t consistent with police reports and video of the incident at around 1 a.m. Aug. 27 on the southeast corner of 13th and P streets.

Video from Tower Square across the street showed Alvis get out of his car, charge at Baylor, who had been walking away, and punch him, despite two of Alvis’s friends trying to hold him back.

“That video surveillance shows definitively that this was not an incident where James posed any threat. He was walking away,” Turner said.

He said Baylor was over 50-feet away when Alvis began running at him.

When Alvis hit him, Baylor fell back, hitting his head on the sidewalk. Alvis leaned over and punched Baylor two or three more times while he was on the ground unconscious.

Police found him unconscious, bleeding from his head and barely breathing.

Despite undergoing an emergency surgery for skull fractures and bleeding on his brain, he died nine days later.

“This was not about defending some female he was with,” Turner said. “This was really about the defendant’s anger.”

He said when Alvis was arrested he told police he had been angry with the stranger for talking to two women he was with while they were at the intersection. Friends said he felt disrespected.

John Baylor described his younger brother as someone beloved in the downtown area, who sang karaoke at the Zoo Bar, greeted homeless people by name, stopped in at downtown businesses and at art galleries on First Fridays and went to countless Husker games.

“It seemed as if everyone knew James,” he said in a crowded courtroom, many there to support him.

John Baylor said James lived with schizophrenia and was independent, the “posterchild” for the Nebraska mental health care system. And he called what happened a senseless, savage act on a street corner in downtown Lincoln.

“How can this happen? How can a 23-year-old man trained by our U.S. Army to defend us instead choose to attack one of us? A kind, slight, 5-foot-7 inch, 150 pound, 55-year-old who never had a mean thought. James wouldn’t even watch movies with any violence,” John Baylor said.

He said he thinks it was his brother’s desire to greet others that “got him killed,” and asked for a lengthy sentence.

In the end, Lancaster County District Judge Matthew Mellor said Alvis’ perspective — that he didn’t intend to cause serious harm — wasn’t consistent with the evidence.

“This is a challenging one, Mr. Alvis, because you are a veteran, and I respect that,” he said. “But it doesn’t change the fact that you’re unpredictable and dangerous.”

Mellor said Alvis’ own statement showed he had an ego problem that night.

“Because of that, the court has significant concerns about the safety of this community,” he said. “What is going to disrespect you next that’s going to cause this behavior?”

And he sentenced Alvis to 23 to 26 years in prison, the most he could, on charges of manslaughter, terroristic threats and abuse of a vulnerable adult to which Alvis had pleaded guilty.