- Font:
- +
- -
The 15-year-old Florida boy charged with savagely beating a teenage girl after they exchanged bitter text messages sent up “warning flares” first that were ignored, his defense lawyer said Monday.
Appearing on TODAY Monday, attorney Russell Williams told Meredith Vieira that one of the triggers for the brutal assault was 15-year-old victim Josie Ratley's reference to the recent suicide of the brother of his client, Wayne Treacy.
“He actually sends up flares to three of his friends, tells them what he is going to do. Nobody says anything. Nobody calls the police. Nobody calls his mom. Nobody calls the school,” Williams said. “He’s saying, ‘Stop me, stop me, stop me. I need help, I need help, I need help,’ and it just never happens,” Williams said.
The assertion was supported by Michael Brannon, a court-appointed psychologist who spent 20 hours meeting with Treacy after he confessed on videotape, saying he could not control his anger.
“I do think he snapped,” Brannon told Vieira.
Threats and insults
Williams released a transcript of the text message exchange (obscenities have been deleted from the transcription below). It begins with Ratley telling Treacy to stop seeing her 13-year-old friend, Kayla Manson, and then escalates.
Ratley ignored Treacy’s texted threats, which came after she made a reference to his older brother, who killed himself last year. Treacy and his mother together discovered the body hanging from a tree. The reference came after Treacy texted an insult about Ratley’s father, Storm Ratley.
“Um sorry ur father abused u but u shudnt take out on others u pitiful lil [deletion],” Treacy typed.
“mi dads dead [deletion]?” Ratley replied, to which Treacy shot back, “Like I give a [deletion].”
Ratley’s father is not dead, and, according to local media reports, spends time with her in her rehab center. There is also no evidence that he ever abused her.
“jus go visit ur dead brother,” Ratley texted.
"UR [deletion] DEAD! I SWEAR TO GOD I'M GONNA KILL YOU. I'LL [deletion] FIND YOU! YOUR [deletion] IS COLD, DEAD MEAT [deletion]!" Treacy texted.
Ratley’s reply betrayed no concern that Treacy could be serious.
“K u make me giggle,” she types.
“watch how much you laugh when i strangle the life outta you!! You're [deletion] dead. You said the wrong thing to the worst person,” Treacy replies.
Ratley tells Treacy he’s to blame for her comment because of his remark about her father, who she claims is dead. Treacy says, “See, I didn't know ur father was dead. u knowingly took a shot at my deceased brother. Today, you die, [deletion]!”
State of mind at issue
If the charges make it to trial, Treacy's state of mind is likely to be a key issue for jurors.
Prosecutors have charged Treacy as an adult with first-degree attempted murder, citing the three hours that passed between his threats and when he carried out the attack as evidence that it was not a heat-of-the-moment attack. Treacy even put on steel-toed boots and rode his bike 3 miles to Ratley’s school, prosecutors will likely point out.
Treacy did not know what Ratley looked like. Kayla Manson, who has also been charged in the attack, pointed her out to the boy. Police say he then threw Ratley to the cement sidewalk outside the school, smashed her head against the pavement and kicked her repeatedly in the head until a teacher pulled him off.
Treacy was reportedly a good student who had not been in any other sort of serious trouble. But, said Brannon, he had been diagnosed with ADHD at the age of 4 and had seen his father sent to jail and his brother commit suicide.
“He’s a very sad kid. That’s the first impression that you have,” the psychologist told Vieira. “He’s very tearful, he‘s very remorseful. He can’t understand how he could possibly do something like this, so whenever the incident is discussed, he is very, very tearful. It’s hard to get him through any discussion about this actual event. It’s almost like he speaks about it as if somebody else had conducted this behavior.”
Also released was a video of Treacy’s confession to police. “I just remember she said something about my dead brother, and that really set me off,” he told police in an emotionless voice. “Usually, when I get angry, it just goes away because I can just vent and stuff. But I don’t know, I couldn’t get the feeling to subside.”
-
Stories from
-
- How Busy Philipps & Michelle Williams Coordinate on the Carpet
- Justin Timberlake Gets Marriage Advice From Joey Fatone
- The Bachelor's Nicki Sterling Is Still Not Over Ben Flajnik
- Anderson Cooper Surprises Kristin Chenoweth with Hair Extensions - for Dogs
- Lindsay Lohan Hosts Saturday Night Live: Her Top Three Moments
-
Unresolved emotions?
Brannon said it was because the boy had not resolved his feelings about his brother’s death.
“He was overwhelmed with emotions about his brother, who he found hanging from a tree,” Brannon said. “He never resolved that, never dealt with that, and one of the things that became triggered in this whole incident with Josie, the unfortunate victim in this case, is those exact feelings that were being suppressed and pushed down.” Video: Text-rage victim recovering
Vieira pointed out that Treacy had threatened Ratley with physical harm even before she made the remark about his brother. The girl repeatedly calls him a rapist, apparently because the Manson girl was two years younger and a grade behind Treacy.
“Josie is calling him a rapist, and he knew several girls that had been raped before. That was a start. Then the conversation, the text messaging, deteriorated from that point forward, and then you get to the point where he just gets overwhelmed or overcome with his emotions,” Brannon said.
Vieira said the fact remains that three hours and a 3-mile bike ride elapsed between the threats and the attack, which prosecutors say was time for Treacy to calm down.
Williams said by that time, Treacy was consumed with thoughts of his dead brother.
“He was not thinking about those text messages,” the lawyer said. “He was thinking of defending his brother, seeing his brother hanging from a tree. And at that point, he had a script played out in his head and he couldn’t get back to where he needed to be.”
© 2012 MSNBC Interactive. Reprints
“ ”