FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., Oct. 22 (UPI) -- A Florida teenager was sentenced to 20 years in prison Monday for viciously beating a girl who had taunted him about his dead brother.
Wayne Treacy, now 17, is to serve 10 years of probation following his incarceration, The Miami Herald reported.
On Mach 17, 2010, Treacy, then 15, threw Josie Lou Ratley to the pavement in the bus area of Deerfield Beach Middle School in Deerfield Beach, kicking the 15-year-old girl repeatedly in the head with steel-toed boots, in response to a taunting message Ratley had sent him about Treacy's dead brother.
The Herald said that before the assault, the two had never met, but on the day of the incident they engaged in a text message battle.
Treacy was found guilty in July of attempted first-degree murder.
Ratley suffered permanent brain damage and will likely have trouble forming new memories for the rest of her life, a neurosurgeon testified at Treacy's trial.
