Abused, Often Homeless, Florida Man Got 2 Life Sentences At 17

JACKSONVILLE, Florida — In the decades after the civil rights era, Black communities in Jacksonville remained disproportionately impoverished, blighted and policed. Some activists would say this continues to present day.

This was the world in which John grew up. Born in the 1970s, John’s childhood was characterized by instability, neglect and abuse. John (a pseudonym) had lived in two dozen homes by the time he moved out. He had attended nearly as many schools.

“The mother’s boyfriend ritually abused [him],” said Teri Sopp, John’s attorney, an assistant public defender. “He made the male children undress in a line while he beat them with a wooden 2-by-4 plank, water hose, extension cord and coat hangers.

“Our client tried to stand in front of his youngest siblings to protect them from the beatings.”

John moved out in his mid-teens. At times, he was homeless. A man became something of a street mentor to him, Sopp said. One day in the mid-1990s, he introduced John, then 17, to a group of young men. The following day, they robbed a man. The man turned out to be armed; one of John’s co-conspirators was shot and killed.

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John, the youngest, didn’t even have a gun, nor was he accused of the killing, Sopp says. Nevertheless, he received two consecutive life sentences for felony murder and robbery.

He’s been in prison for nearly 30 years, well over half his life. He’s spent that time bettering himself and his peers, educationally and spiritually, Sopp says. He’s also reflected a lot on the twists of fate and choices that put him in a cell, potentially for the rest of his life. Sopp describes him as extremely remorseful.

Now John is petitioning the court to resentence him, potentially to time served. If he is released, the man who leaves prison will little resemble the boy who entered it all those years ago.

“He’s just a changed human being,” Sopp said.

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This is the fifth in a Northeast Florida-focused series collaboration between WJCT and the Center for Sustainable Journalism, which publishes Youth Today and the Juvenile Justice Information Exchange. This series is part of the Center’s national project on gun violence. Support is provided by The Kendeda Fund. The Center is solely responsible for the content and maintains editorial independence.