JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The Dave & Buster's cook accused of beating 28-year-old Thony Roy to death during a shift has pleaded not guilty.
Cordell Samuel Bentley Russell has a pretrial case management hearing scheduled for March 28 on manslaughter charges.
Family said Roy was on life support since the incident on Jan. 21. He died five days later.
According to the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office, Russell, who was a cook at the Dave & Buster's on Salisbury Road where the incident took place, beat Roy until he was brain-dead.
Roy was training Russell at the time of the incident, police said. Details about what happened beforehand are largely redacted from the police report.
A witness told police that Russell was already in a bad mood and had been working all day already. The witness said that somebody said something to get him even more agitated and heard Cordell say, "I'm a grown a** man!"
That's when the fight tookplace.
A witness says he rushed over to the victim to try and help him, but he began foaming at the mouth. He later died.
Russell was later arrested at his sister's home without incident, police said.
