had been having. so he set up a plan, obviously, to come back at the end of the day to attack her or to hit her. as this last period progresses, you can see randolph parker, walking up and down the hallway, waiting for the class to end. he puts on a red bandana over his face and signals to his cohort, 17-year-old dominic harris, to position himself on the other side of the hallway. according to police, harris role was to get the assault on his cell phone camera. at one point parker even sends another student into the class to coax the teacher to come out into the hallway. there s no doubt mr. parker did plan the attack. he put a little bit of thought into it because he hit there right at the end of the day. it s 2:15 and class is letting out. unbeknownst to parker and harris, the school s surveillance cameras capture the entire incident. through the eye of the camera you ll see the whole thing. you ll see parker get behind her door. and as she was walking out of her door right
day, now there were students in the hall. he just took a running start, and he hit her with everything he had. parker drives a vicious blow into the side of the teacher s face right above her eye. she falls to the ground, and he takes off running down the hall and out the building. students immediately come to the teacher s aid. she gets up from the floor and sits down, holding her head, clearly in pain. principal doug estle is called to the scene. over the radio, i heard an administrator is needed upstairs. and, of course, we know when we get the call on the radio an administrator is needed. we all go. we get there, and at the point i get to the top of the stairs i realize what had happened. the teacher, bleeding from her injuries, is rushed to the hospital where she receives 20 stitches around her eye. some say the extent of the injuries is so severe because parker was wearing brass knuckles. i believe he did have on brass knuckles just because of the injury itself and how he
randolph parker is charged as an adult. he pleads guilty to felony assault in the second-degree and is sentenced to three years in prison. as for the claim that he was wearing brass knuckles we were never able to prove brass knuckles. he has a reputation for having brass knuckles, but we couldn t prove it in this case. as for dominic harris, the second student with the cell phone camera, his trial is pending. i think the arrest and conviction and sentencing of the first young man here probably sends as loud and strong a message as can be sent in this community. that is our teachers are special. our teachers under the law are protected. john tyson knows the surveillance video in the case was critical in the conviction of randolph parker. it s very difficult for a defendant to deny what everybody can see on videotape. videotape has no motive. the videotape lays it all out
and 2,600 students, considered one of the best in the area. murphy high school is a very diverse school. we re an inner city school, but we have close to a 50/50 white/black ratio population. it s a wonderful mixture. i always say that murphy is probably the closest we ll have to the perfect melting pot. reporter: doug estle was the principal at murphy high school. he has a great rapport with his students. but one afternoon on may 18th, 2007, one of those students commits a violent and senseless crime. a student was being placed under a suspension from a teacher s classroom. 16-year-old randolph parker, seen here in the blue shirt, khaki colored pants, is the problem student in 61-year-old melissa s ninth grade english class. she s giving a party that afternoon in her classroom for an exchange student who s returning home. although randolph parker had been suspended earlier that day, he returns later and paces outside her door. obviously through his anger, he wanted to take o
catch petty thieves and late-night break-ins, but this is the first for an assault of this magnitude. a couple of my assistant principals went to the camera room and immediately started backing it up and taking a look at who it was. we also had students already in the hallway who identified both young men. and because of the tapes and the student identifications, the police were able to apprehend the suspects quickly. mobile district attorney john tyson. well, the tape speaks for itself. we have two young men who are in on it. one is to take photographs. the other is going to actually accomplish the assault. and we can clearly see, as the teacher walks out, that the ambush is on, and he throws a haymaker and floors the teacher right there in the hall. randolph parker is charged as an adult. he pleads guilty to felony assault in the second-degree and is sentenced to three years in prison. as for the claim that he was wearing brass knuckles we were never able to prove brass k