Tufts Students Get Ten Years For '73 Assault at Eliot House

Because of a production error, a portion of the article on the court case of three Tufts students was omitted from yesterday's Crimson. The story appears in full below.

Three Tufts students pleaded guilty Wednesday to four felony charges arising from an incident at Eliot House January 22, 1973, and were sentenced to ten years at Concord Reformatory.

University police arrested the men last year after they forcibly entered a room at Eliot House and robbed a student at gunpoint. Before leaving they tied the victim's hands and feet, placed a gun next to his head, and fired a shot into the ceiling.

Cambridge Superior Court Judge Kenneth Smith found the three defendants guilty of kidnapping, armed assault in a dwelling house, armed robbery, and confining and putting in fear.

He sentenced each defendant to ten years for each charge, with the terms to be served concurrently. The judge recommended that they serve a minimum of five years. He dismissed a fifth charge of trespassing.

The defendants received the minimum sentence for each charge. The maximum sentence for kidnapping alone is life imprisonment.

Harvard Police Officer Philip E. Murphy, a witness in the proceedings, said Wednesday he thought the judge "was a very fair guy to everybody concerned." He said the judge seemed to consider the defendants' unimpeachable past records, and reached his decision "taking their whole lives into perspective."

"The judge didn't seem to be looking for revenge, he was looking for justice," Murphy said. "The defendants got more justice than I thought they would."