A36-year-old man who stopped in Houston on his way back home to Florida was sentenced to 40 years in prison for stomping another man to death who he thought robbed him of $10, Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg announced Saturday.

1 of 2 Photos in Gallery© Harris County District Attorney’s Office

Florida man sentenced to 40 years for fatally stomping Houston man he thought robbed his $10

Teddy Geer was convicted this week of murdering Randy Thompson, 50, on April 11, 2018, as he was traveling back to Miami from California. At the time, Geer told police he was buying a small amount of crack near the downtown Greyhound Bus Station when a woman and three men robbed him.

Geer encountered Thompson later that night and began talking to him because he thought Thompson was one of the robbers, the Harris County DA's Office said in a news release. Thompson was staying at a nearby men’s shelter because of problems at his home.

Surveillance video captured Geer and Thompson walking together "like friends," the release said. Geer admitted to police that when Thompson turned his back, he hit him in the back of the head and then stomped on his head until Thompson's skull was broken. 

While Thompson was unconscious, Geer searched his wallet for his stolen $10, but there was nothing there, the release said.

“There’s no evidence that Randy Thompson was involved in the theft of $10, but even if he was involved, that does not warrant a death sentence,” Assistant District Attorney Erica Robinson Winsor, who prosecuted the case with ADA Michele Oncken, stated in the release. “It’s just senseless.”

Thompson, a registered organ donor, was a well-loved man who was going through a tough time, Winsor said.

“This was a senseless and brutal beating for no reason other than the fact that this killer decided to act as judge, jury and executioner,” Ogg said in the release “This man hid his intentions to gain the victim’s trust and then moments later viciously beat