ALBANY — A judge sentenced knife-wielding felon Jimmie Lee Allen to 25 years to life in state prison Wednesday for stabbing his roommate Rodney McLean to death in the South End as the victim’s mother and sister told the killer to “burn in hell.”
The 60-year-old Allen, whose rap sheet includes a knifepoint sexual assault and robbery in New Jersey and an attempted robbery in Albany County, flashed his middle finger at the victim’s family after Albany County Judge Andra Ackerman imposed his sentence. Allen repeated the profane gesture at a Times Union reporter who was taking pictures as deputies escorted him from the courtroom.
On March 30, a jury convicted Allen of second-degree murder for fatally stabbing McLean in their residence on Clinton Street, between Third and Fourth avenues, during the early hours of Aug. 12.
“You butchered my son, allowing him no opportunity to defend himself,” Hattie Porter, the mother of McLean, said in a statement read aloud by her daughter, Kesha McLean. The mother slammed Allen for his repeated lack of remorse, telling Allen his cold-blooded demeanor would “serve you well while you burn in hell.”
The mother said she was pleased he would spend the rest of his days in prison “rotting in a cell like the caged animal you are and for the rest of your pitiful life.”
In tears, Kesha McLean added her own thoughts that the pain of losing her brother will never go away. They had been “joined at the hip,” she said, noting her brother had always been there to tell her how proud he was of her accomplishments, such as obtaining degrees and becoming a grandmother.
“And now I don’t have that because you took that from me,” the sister told Allen. “And for that, I hope you burn in hell… I hope you rot like the animal you are. And I hope your family will have to suffer the way we suffer every day because you didn’t have to take his life. That was a choice.”
Assistant District Attorney Ariel Fallon, who prosecuted the case with Assistant District Attorney Jessica Blain-Lewis, told the judge that Allen’s testimony was wholly incredible. She said Allen told police he did was responsible for McLean’s death, but claimed it was self-defense while in his bed.
His attorney, Assistant Public Defender Rebekah Sokol, said Allen had physical issues that led him to fear for his health.
When given a chance to speak, Allen cast blame on McLean, his defense attorneys, the prosecutors, judge, city police, sheriff’s deputies and the court stenographer while casting himself as a victim of the justice system.
Allen claimed to a probation officer conducting a pre-sentencing report that he had never been in trouble before arriving in Albany. The judge reminded Allen that was untrue. The judge reminded Allen he was sentenced to 15 years in prison after being convicted in New Jersey of the knifepoint sexual assault and robbery in 1981. Allen was convicted of failing to register as a sex offender in 1999, 2005 and 2015, convicted of attempted robbery in 2015 and then violated his probation and went back to prison.
“You intentionally took a life out of this world,” Ackerman told the defendant. “You intentionally killed him when you stabbed him repeatedly. You have absolutely zero remorse. You’ve had none since your first contact with the police and it continues here today. You have zero acceptance of responsibility and you have zero compassion. … so I see no reason here to show you any more compassion than you have shown Rodney McLean or his family.”