Taxi driver sentenced for killing Yonkers man decade ago
YONKERS, New York (WABC) -- A former taxi driver convicted of killing a Yonkers man a decade ago was sentenced to at least 20 years in prison on Tuesday.
Damon Scott was found guilty in October in the 2008 murder of 35-year-old Jerome Hancock after a cold-case investigation.
Scott, a driver for Yonkers Union Taxi at the time, pulled up in front of Mexico Car Service on South Broadway where Hancock was waiting for a cab.
Scott fatally shot Hancock from the front passenger side window before driving off. Prosecutors say the victim had gotten into an earlier dispute about the price of a fare with Scott.
Authorities say Scott fled to Georgia where he remained for nearly a decade living under several aliases.
The case was reopened by Westchester authorities in 2013.
In 2017, Scott was arrested in Georgia on an unrelated matter and police notified Yonkers authorities. He was then extradited to Westchester County to face the murder charge.
He has a lengthy rap sheet and prosecutors say he has shown no remorse. When he had a chance to address the court Tuesday, he proclaimed his innocence.
"I feel really sorry for the family of this victim, I feel sorry for the victim, but I did not do this crime and I will continue to fight for my innocence," Scott said.
In Tuesday's sentencing, the victim's wife told the court about the impact her husband's death has had on her family.
Jessica Hancock waited a over a decade to face her husband's murderer after she was left to raise five children on her own. She said Hancock was a father like no other.
"My children walk have to walk this Earth every day with one parent, something some of us at 40 or 50 still haven't experienced," Hancock told the court. "They're teenagers, they never had their dad."
Scott was sentenced to 20 years to life in prison.
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