Syracuse (WSYR-TV) – A man convicted in a homicide that took place outside a New Year’s Eve Party on Syracuse’s North Side was sentenced to 20 years in prison on Wednesday morning.
Malcolm Dame had been arrested more than 50 times before being charged with the killing of 21-year-old Daequan Kerce outside a residence on North Salina Street.
Dame was asked to leave the event after arguing with his girlfriend. While being escorted from the residence, Dame started a fight with a different woman. When Kerce intervened, Dame stabbed him in the neck.
Police charged him with murder, manslaughter, and criminal possession of a weapon.
The scene surrounding the sentencing was emotionally charged with Dame's daughter and the victim's mother embracing outside the courtroom.
“Two wrongs don’t make a right. Because it can’t bring my child back,” said the victim’s mother, Rose Kerce.
“I don’t want anyone to think that he’s a monster. Because he would give anyone the shirt off his back. And it is wrong…what he did was wrong. But just hear that he is a father too. Other people are losing him just like the other family lost someone,” said Dame’s daughter, Shawna Pascarella.
Dame maintains that he stabbed Kerce in the throat in self defense. He had nothing to say during his Wednesday sentencing.
