Student homicide suspect from Phila. had troubled past

He compared his life to a book, a bad one, always stuck on the same page, full of fighting and anger.

Yeaseam Lakwan Nelson, 19, of Philadelphia, said so in a blog post titled "The Real Yeaseam Nelson" about three years ago. Despite fights and school expulsions, Nelson sounded as if he was turning his life around, saying he was dedicating himself to school and that getting mad was "pointless."

But Nelson - who has said he's been in more fights than Mike Tyson - found himself in another fight Saturday evening, when police said the Indiana University of Pennsylvania student put another student in a fatal choke hold. He was charged with criminal homicide, aggravated assault and reckless endangerment.

Police said that on Malibu Drive in White, outside the borough of Indiana, Nelson used a choke hold on Mikhail Young, 21, of Indiana County, to break up a fight between Young and a woman. According to police reports, Nelson tried to stop the altercation and then he and Young - who recently had been charged with aggravated assault - started fighting. Nelson placed Young in a choke hold until the victim's arms fell to his sides. Nelson left, only to return later and find that Young had died.

Despite saying in his blog that "the attitude and the aggressive nature never left," Nelson's friends didn't know anything about a rough past, and couldn't remember ever seeing him in an argument.

Thomas Jenkins, 19, of Verona, has been Nelson's roommate at Indiana University of Pennsylvania since last summer.

Nelson - Jenkins called him "Seam" - was focused on school and had a lot of friends, Jenkins said. He didn't seem to have a short temper, but instead was kindhearted and quick to help a friend.

"He was one of the people that would look out for you," Jenkins said. "If you needed something, he would get it for you."

He wanted to be someone others could look up to, said Felicia Harmon, 19, of Philadelphia, Nelson's girlfriend.

"Everything that happened in his past, he wanted to forget that and make a better future," she said.

She's shocked something like what took place on Saturday could have happened.

"That's not like him," she said. "I never thought that this would happen. It never even came to my mind."

Neither could Young's friends understand how he could have found himself in the fatal fight.

Acting as a sort of second family for Young because most of his relatives live in Jamaica, Katy Bailley spent a lot of time with the victim, whom she called her brother.

She said Young originally had goals of working in pastry and baking. He attended IUP's Academy of Culinary Arts and had dreams of becoming a full-time chef.

Bailley, 18, of Falls Creek, also was surprised by Saturday's events.

"No, I've never seen Mikhail yell at somebody," she said. "Anybody could get mad at someone."

The cause of young's death has not been determined.