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Main: John Sheeran leaving court on Sept. 11, 2023. Inset: The pond where Sheeran tried to drown a Black teen last year (WFXT).
A white 15-year-old in Massachusetts who admitted to carrying out a racially-motivated attack last year in which he tried to drown a Black teen while calling him racial slurs and referring to the victim as “George Floyd” because he was unable to breathe will not be going to jail for his crimes.
John P. Sheeran, who in December pleaded guilty to one count of attempted murder and one count of assault with a dangerous weapon, appeared in Barnstable Juvenile Court on Wednesday where Judge Sylvia Gomes ordered him to serve three years of probation and to complete 723 hours of community service as well as an online educational course, the Cape Cod Times reported.
If Sheeran is arrested and charged with another crime within the three-year period, he will be in violation of his probation and remanded to the Department of Youth Services until he turns 21, according to the report.
Aside from writing a court-ordered apology letter, Sheeran was also reportedly directed to stay away from the victim going forward.
Sheeran had been charged as a “youthful offender,” meaning Gomes had the option to sentence him as an adult if she felt it was appropriate.
Under Massachusetts’ youthful offender statute, prosecutors can seek adult sentences for juveniles between the ages of 14 and 17 under certain circumstances. Those circumstances require that the juvenile is charged with a felony and is accused of inflicting or threatening serious bodily harm, committed a firearms offense, or has previously been committed to the Department of Youth Services.
Unlike juvenile hearings, the proceedings for individuals prosecuted under the youthful offender statute are open to the public. For sentencing, a youthful offender can be sentenced to the same maximum penalty as an adult, committed to youth services until they reach age 21, or a combination of the two.
The sentencing hearing
During the sentencing hearing, Gomes reportedly expressed her hope that Sheeran’s unconscionable actions on that day did not define the rest of his life.
“This is a fair resolution for all parties,” she reportedly told the teen. “I cannot undo what happened, but hopefully this resolution will bring the community closure and comfort.”
The sentence came after Sheeran’s lawyer, Kevin Reddington, reportedly told the court multiple times on Wednesday that the victim in the case was not actually a victim “in any sense” of the word. Reddington also attacked then-District Attorney Robert Galibois, who was present in the courtroom, referring to him as a “puppet master” and calling the case against his client a “charade.”
Reddington had previously told the Boston Globe that the charges against his client were “over the top,” claiming the teens were merely “horseplaying” when the situation got “out of control.”
“This kid (Sheeran) has been presented as a racist to the entire country,” Reddington said, per the Cape Cod Times. “This is a manipulation by the alleged victim.”
Another white teen was also arrested in connection with the attack. He is accused of harassing the victim, but unlike Sheeran, the second suspect is charged as a juvenile and thus his identity has not been released.
The attack
As previously reported by Law&Crime, the incident took place at the Goose Pond in Chatham, Massachusetts, at about 3 p.m. on July 19, 2023, and involved a then-14-year-old Sheeran, the other white juvenile, and the 15-year-old male victim. The pond is about an 85-mile drive from Boston.
Prosecutors said the three boys met at the pond and that upon Sheeran’s arrival, he “picked up a stone, threatened the victim with it” and then “made the racially charged statement, ‘N—–‘ to the victim.”
Prosecutors said that before entering the water, the victim put on a life jacket and told Sheeran and the other boy that he did not know how to swim. The three boys then entered the water together, police said.
“Once in the water, the juvenile defendant proceeded to pull on the victim’s life jacket and submerged him underwater 4 to 5 times, causing the victim breathing distress,” prosecutors wrote in a press release. “The third juvenile laughed at the victim during the attempted drowning and referred to the victim as ‘George Floyd.’ The attack continued as the juvenile defendant swam underneath the victim and attempted to grab his feet to again pull the victim underwater.”
The victim began yelling for someone on the beach to help him, and the alleged attack ended when a bystander intervened, entering the water and helping the victim ashore.
The individual who intervened on the victim’s behalf was also a juvenile male who provided a statement to police. In that statement, the boy reportedly said that he overheard the victim asking Sheeran to “please not splash or push him because of his inability to swim.” After that, the boy said he witnessed Sheeran “pushing [the victim’s] head under water” while the victim was “screaming for help.” The juvenile reportedly said that when he went to help the victim, Sheeran and the boy he was with “were smirking” at him.
The victim also provided a statement to police, saying that as soon as he got to the pond, Sheeran started calling him racial slurs, throwing rocks at him, and threatening to beat him up, Boston Fox affiliate WFXT reported.
“[Sheeran] held on to my life jacket and pulled me underwater and back up about 4-5 times,” the victim wrote in a statement to authorities. “[W]hile doing it, water got into my mouth and nose, and I could not breathe.”
The victim reportedly added that Sheeran kicked and pushed him under the water while calling him “George Floyd” — an apparent reference to the 2020 death of Floyd, who was Black, at the hands of Derek Chauvin, a white Minneapolis police officer who was convicted of Floyd’s murder.
Prosecutors said that at about 8:15 p.m. on the same evening as the alleged attack at the lake, Sheeran also struck an Asian child in the face and called him racial slurs, WFXT reported.