Acosta freed from prison almost 10 years after fight killed James Brier

MANATEE -- John Acosta, 27, who was sent to prison for nine and a quarter years for his role in the death of James Brier during an after-school fight near Manatee High School on Oct. 18, 2001, was released from prison Sunday, according to the Florida Department of Corrections website.

Both Acosta and Briers were Manatee High students.

Acosta served some of his sentence at Lowell Correctional Institute and some in a work release program in St. Petersburg.

The family of Brier received the news of Acosta’s release via a victim information email service that notifies victims whenever changes occur with the status of perpetrators.

“It’s kind of hard to put into words what I feel,” Chuck Chambers, Brier’s grandfather and a local private investigator, said Sunday. “His life now goes on and James’ life never will. It just seems like it is such a loss. You think of someone getting to rejoin his family and you question the moral justice.”

A call to the Acosta home Sunday night for a comment was not immediately returned.

Brier died of a ruptured artery on the back of his neck sustained during the after school fight near the old Foodway Supermarket, Chambers said.

During the roughly eight years Acosta was in prison, Chambers spent time unsuccessfully trying to persuade local law officials to charge several other youths who were at the scene as well.

“It never goes away,” Chambers said. “You put it in a compartment where it doesn’t see the daylight. But, at night, when you lay down to go to sleep, those thoughts come drifting back of going fishing with the young man and the plans you had for him.”

A Pinellas County jury convicted Acosta of manslaughter Feb. 21, 2003.

The jury was the second to hear the prosecution’s case against Acosta. The first was unable to come to a verdict, according to Herald archives.

Two women and four men decided that Acosta’s one punch to Brier’s eye was a criminal act that caused Brier’s death.

Joan Brier, the victim’s mother, hugged jurors afterward, telling them how special James was to her, that he was in Junior ROTC at Manatee High School, and that he had an IQ of 140, the Herald previously reported.

The first jury that deliberated on Acosta’s fate in August 2002 nearly acquitted him. Five out of the first six jurors said they felt Acosta was not guilty, the Herald reported.

In 2004, the home owner’s insurance company for Acosta’s parents paid Brier’s estate $300,000 to settle a civil lawsuit.

Michael Packer, the civil attorney hired by the Acostas’ insurance company, said the settlement did not mean John Acosta or his parents admitted liability, the Herald reported previously.

This story was originally published July 18, 2011 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Acosta freed from prison almost 10 years after fight killed James Brier."