The 15-year-old Cape Cod boy who pleaded guilty to trying to drown a 15-year-old Black acquaintance will serve no jail time after a Massachusetts judge suspended a three-year sentence in a juvenile detention center.
Instead, John “Jack” Sheeran must complete 720 hours of community service and stay away from his victim, Judge Sylvia Gomes ruled Monday.
Despite the light sentence, Sheeran’s lawyer, Kevin Reddington, insisted his client was the real victim, even though the teen, son of a wealthy ferry mogul, had pleaded guilty to charges of attempted murder and assault with a dangerous weapon.
Reddington accused Cape & Islands District Attorney Robert Galibois of being a “puppet master” who had escalated an incident of youthful “horseplay” into something much more.
“This case has taken on a life of its own,” Reddington said. “This young man has been vilified as a racist and been made fun of and criticized in international press.”
The incident took place on July 19, 2023, at Goose Pond in Chatham, Massachusetts. The Black teen had come to the lake on his bike to meet up with Sheeran and other boys he assumed were his friends.
Sheeran instructed the victim to ride his bike, which belonged to his brother, into the lake, according to NBC News.
After two other white boys began throwing rocks at him, the victim, who couldn’t swim, put on a life jacket and waded into the pond.
He continued to be pelted with rocks as the white kids called him the N-word as well as “boy.”
Sheeran and another boy now surrounded him in the water. Witnesses said Sheeran repeatedly pushed his head underwater as the others laughed and called him “George Floyd”.
“Water went into my mouth and my nose and I could not breathe,” the victim said in a written statement to police, according to NBC News.
“So I shouted out that I can’t breathe over and over and tried to get his hand off me.”
But Sheeran, according to police, was unrelenting, swimming under the water to grab the Black boy’s feet as he continued pulling him down.
A witness, also a minor, finally intervened.
“When I finally get to them they were smirking,” the witness wrote in a statement to police.
Reddington attacked the “alleged victim,” saying the youth was “playing the system. He is playing the DA,” the defense attorney told the court. “(Sheeran) knew this kid, took him in.”
“He spent more time in the Sheeran family home than anyone,” Reddington said as he rubbed his client’s shoulders. “This young kid will be branded a racist for the rest of his life.”
Reddington said adults have confronted Sheeran on the streets, calling him a racist. He referenced a report by forensic psychologist Dr. Paul Zeizel, who called the criminal charges against Sheeran a “travesty.”
Politics, Reddington claimed, drove the case, blaming Galibois and Judge Sylvia Gomes. He also played a recording of the Black victim apparently laughing at a racial slur.
Gomes shot back, telling Reddington there was no political agenda.
“I have focused on the young man here who made a horrific mistake,” the judge said. “Let’s take race out of it, it would still be a horrific set of circumstances. You made a poor choice, you as a human being, to hold anyone underwater for any period of time knowing they can’t swim is horrific.”
In a statement, Galibois said he agreed race was not a factor in the prosecution.
“We further agree with the Court’s announcement that this was not a matter of horseplay but a criminal act,” the DA said. “We also appreciate the Court applying the facts of this case to the charges at hand and rendering a fair disposition to all parties.”
“We appreciate the Court eloquently and succinctly rejecting the defense attorney’s inflammatory and headline-grabbing characterizations,” Galibois said.
Addressing Sheeran, Judge Gomes told him, “This should hopefully not be your defining moment.”
“You will go off and do wonderful things in your life,” she said.
Gomes ordered Sheeran have no contact with his victim. He must also write a letter of apology, along with completing two education programs.
Sheeran has been on house arrest at his father’s $1.6 million Chatham home since he bonded out of jail in September 2023.
