FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) - A South Florida teenager is being sentenced for a vicious kicking and stomping attack outside a middle school that left a 15-year-old girl with permanent brain injuries.
A Broward County judge is scheduled Monday to sentence 18-year-old Wayne Treacy. He was convicted in July of attempted first-degree murder in the 2010 attack on Josie Lou Ratley. Treacy could get up to 50 years in prison.
Treacy unsuccessfully used an insanity defense, claiming he was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder caused by the recent suicide of his older brother. The attack on Ratley came after the two of them exchanged a series of insulting text messages, including one about the dead brother.
Mental health experts agreed that Treacy suffers from mental illness, but prosecutors said he knew right from wrong.
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