By Rafael Olmeda, Sun Sentinel –
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Eighteen-year-old Wayne Treacy was sentenced to 20 years in prison by Broward County Judge David Haimes during a hearing Monday.
Treacy was accused of deliberately trying to kill Josie Lou Ratley, then 15, over an insensitive text message on March 17, 2010, when he slammed her to the ground and stomped her head with steel-toe boots.
His cohort who was implicated in the nearly fatal beating in Deerfield Beach, Fla., will not serve time in jail.
Kayla Manson, now 16, pleaded no contest in a Fort Lauderdale courtroom Monday to a charge of misdemeanor battery in the case.
Manson was charged as the accomplice to Treacy, of Pompano Beach.
Ratley survived, with irreversible brain damage.
Treacy’s defense claimed he was legally insane at the time of the attack and suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder after seeing his brother’s body hanging from a tree in 2009.
Jurors rejected the claim of legal insanity because Treacy knew the consequences of his actions. He was convicted of first-degree attempted murder in July, and could have received a sentence of up to 50 years in prison.
Under a negotiated plea with the state attorney’s office, Manson, who was charged as a minor, will have adjudication withheld and will not be sentenced to a corrections facility.
If she avoids arrest or other legal troubles until she becomes an adult, she will also have a clean record.
When he is released from prison, Treacy will also have to serve 10 years’ probation.
The incident drew national, unwanted attention to Deerfield Beach after Ratley was assaulted at the Deerfield Beach Middle School campus bus stop while classes were getting out for the day.
Treacy did not know Ratley personally, and Manson has denied identifying the victim to him.
