Heavy handed punishment? Spencer Pearson, Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida man gets life in prison without parole for previously stabbing his ex high school girlfriend, Madison Schemitz after breaking up with him, leaving her partially paralyzed along with injuring her mother and a bystander who intervened.
The crime was awful. It’s obvious the 20 year old Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida defendant needed to do to jail time. He imparted a lifetime of trauma on three victims, especially a young girl he was in love with but unable to convey and ill equiped to handle and she opted out of the relationship.
Spencer Pearson, then 18, was undergoing mental trauma and had been subjected to years of brutal head trauma from contact sport and even attempted to take his own life after the victim broke up with him after 8 months of what had increasingly become ‘taxing’ dating. And on the day he stabbed Madison Schemitz, then 17, he had no idea that she would be at the restaurant where he attacked her. It would appear that the attack was not intentional.
Madison Schemitz: 538 days of living in true torment
The knife he carried with him was to use on himself later that day as he planned on taking his own life after ‘his last meal’ at his favourite restaurant he often went with his father. Yes he deserves punishment. But a life sentence?
Spencer Peason, 20, appearing in court on Friday was sentenced to life in prison without parole after previously pleading guilty to attempted murder on his former high school sweetheart, Madison Schemitz, who on June 3, 2023 stabbed her 17 times, leaving her at the time paralysed from the chest down and deeply traumatised from the episode and now relying on a cane to walk as she continues rehabilitation treatment with the hope that she might one day walk un-impeded.
Prior to the court handing down the former high school football player his life sentence, the victim (who had requested the maximum sentence possible) read a statement which revealed the extent of trauma she suffered and will undoubtedly will continue to suffer, possibly for the rest of her life.
Stated Schemitz: ‘I’ve thought about this day, this moment, this statement for the last 538 days. 538 days of living in true torment. 538 days that regardless of the circumstances always had the same dark cloud looming over,’
‘538 days of constantly reliving the trauma the defendant put me through.’
‘This court does not impose a sentence based on vengeance,’
‘I suffer from PTSD and anxiety daily, I still deal with the sleepless nights and constant nightmares. I refuse to go outside alone at night, in the dark, I feel myself fearing the worst possibilities in every situation,’ she said. ‘I’ve lost all trust in the world, and finding that trust in people again is far and few between. I’ve lost any child-like innocence.’
The Friday hearing was to decide the ‘appropriate’ punishment that should be meted out after Pearson previously pled guilty to attacking his former girlfriend, her mother and a bystander whose intervention likely saved Schemitz’s life.
‘This defendant launched a vicious attack on a 17-year-old girl who had done nothing but show him love and only weeks earlier had done her part to try to save his life when he attempted suicide,’ Richard O. Watson Judicial Center, Seventh Judicial Circuit Judge R. Lee Smith said.
‘The same person who had tried to save his life, he violently and viciously attacked.’
Smith complimented Pearson’s counsel for their arguments on his behalf, demonstrating he was ‘clearly’ suffering from a ‘depressive state of mind,’ and asking the judge to consider his age and the fact he had no violent history. ‘This court does not impose a sentence based on vengeance,’ Smith said.
The life sentence came after the Ponte Vedra Beach-local was found guilty of two counts of attempted first-degree murder with a weapon and aggravated battery causing serious bodily injury with a weapon outside of Mr. Chubby’s Wings on Valley Circle.
Spencer Pearson Madison sentencing: Heavy handed punishment?
The near 10-hour sentencing also heard the testimonies of her mother, Jacki Roge, who was seriously wounded in the attack and Kennedy Armstrong, their rescuer, who ended up suffering a serious hand injury which has forever changed his ability to earn a living as a carpenter.
Armstrong, 24, who had intervened, knocked Pearson off of Schemitz, told the court of his own struggle to recover from that day.
No longer able to apply his trade as a carpenter, the 24-year-old said his life has been permanently altered.
‘You planned this,’ he told Pearson. ‘You knew what you were doing. And thanks to God you failed. You will remain a failure until you see God and he sends you to the devil.’
But did Pearson really plan to kill his victims? In fact it had been simply a case of coincidence on the day of the attack that the defendant and her mother had gone to Ponte Vedra Beach sports bar, Mr. Chubby’s Wings, for what was supposed to be his last meal, where he had often gone with his own father and who had brought a knife with him to then go to a nearby beach and ‘listen tot he sound of waves,’ as he planned to slit his own throat and die.
He had no idea that Madison would be there after his father previously taking away his own cellphone days before after the son being accused of setting up fake social media accounts to ‘stalk’ his victim.
Schemitz by then had began the process of acquiring a restraining order against her ex as her fears continued to grow.
He was young man dealing with his own mental trauma, social anxiety and possible head trauma from playing years of contact sport. He was ill equipped to take rejection and unable to lift himself from the depths of low self esteem and his sense of diminished masculinity. He wanted out. He wanted to take his own life. What he most needed was mental treatment and rehabilitation.
Schemitz’s mother who was attacked as she sought to defend her then 17 year old daughter, took the stand to deliver her own impact statement, calling Pearson ‘evil’ while also taking aim on her daughter’s ex boyfriend’s parents.
Spencer Pearson Madison sentencing: ‘I am not a monster…’
‘You’re a monster,’ Roge said, adding ‘I pray for my family’s peace, and I pray for your family to have the lives you deserve.’
Pearson’s attorneys had sought 12 years in prison followed by 15 years of supervision including mental health treatment and counseling. The judge ultimately sided with the prosecution and sentenced him to life in prison.
Finally it was his turn, as Spencer Pearson addressed the court, begged for mercy, apologizing to his victims.
‘I’m here to express my sincere apology … on this day I hurt everyone,’ Pearson said.
It was to no avail. The 20 year old is now consigned to spend the rest of his life in a confined space, his freedom forever gone, presumably forced to despair for the rest of his life over his actions on one fateful day in June of last year, the state meting out what it believed to be the most appropriate punishment for his actions.
After the sentence was read, Pearson’s mother could be heard crying and saying, ‘I love you, Spencer.’
The author wonders had the genders been reversed and had he been the one who was stabbed 17 times, now left with the trauma of having to rely on a cane to walk with (possibly for the rest of his life) whether Schemitz had been the one who imparted the violence, if they too would also have been sentenced to life in prison without parole? Does anyone really believe the same punishment would’ve been meted out and that the defendant in that case would’ve been offered more sympathy for their actions?
Which is to wonder, how is crime and punishment meted out and when is it appropriate to put aside the anguish and torment imparted and instead of seeking the most stringent forms of punishment possible (in a state that allows conceal and carry) whether some form of conciliation and understanding be sought?
Does Spencer Pearson really deserve life behind bars and if he does, what does that suggest about the criminal system in Florida and in the United States?
