By Shayna Jacobs
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN SUPREME COURT — A career street hustler convicted of robbing a Swedish naval officer and his elderly father at knifepoint was sentenced to up to life in prison on Thursday.
Con artist Louis Parson — whose M.O. is to bump into someone, smash a liquor bottle filled with water to the ground deliberately and then demand payment for his spilled booze — received little sympathy from the judge and prosecutors, who said a lifetime of menacing visitors and New Yorkers was enough.
Parson, prosecutors said, represents a throwback to the city's high crime days. He has scammed "hundreds and hundreds" of unsuspecting tourists and his propensity to commit crimes is the "reason there are maximum sentences," Assistant District Attorney Christopher Ryan said.
"Mr. Parson is a dinosaur because he's still living in the '70s and '80s when scam artists and people of his ilk wandered around New York City scamming and robbing tourists and citizens," Ryan said.
Parson, 43, was convicted at trial of attempted robbery and weapons possession. He has dozens of other convictions, including several felonies, which led to the harsh sentencing.
When he wasn't in jail, he was trying his street scam on people up to 10 times a day — and it worked half the time, he testified.
He tried the bottle scam on Lt. Commander Peter Palm of the Swedish navy and his elderly father by knocking into them on the street and following them into the lobby of the Pennsylvania Hotel, video played at trial showed.
He eventually cornered them and brandished a box cutter, but police were nearby and he was arrested promptly, according to testimony.
Parson was convicted in March 2010 but was not sentenced until Friday because he has been challenging the DA's use of his criminal past against him. He had claimed that several of his convictions were not really his, but Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Lewis Bart Stone did not buy the argument.
"After a while some people just don't get it and the only thing to protect society is to put them away for a long time," the judge said. "You're within that category."
When offered the chance to speak, Parson said he was "embarrassed" by his scam and the time he's facing behind bars because of it.
"I would just like to apologize to everyone here for my, um, immaturity as far as this coming about," Parson said.
He said he recognized that he could die behind bars before he's even up for parole.
His lawyer, Michelle Benoit, said it was unfair for Parson to get what a person would get for "murdering somebody or committing a violent rape."
Parson faces up to life in prison, with a minimum of 20 years behind bars.
