DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — A man who randomly attacked a 14-year-old boy at the Daytona Beach Boardwalk during Daytona 500 weekend will spend 45 years in prison.
Jermaine Long pleaded guilty Thursday to attempted first-degree murder and aggravated battery as part of an agreement in the attack on Sullivan Clarke, who was visiting Daytona Beach with his family.
Clarke still has a scar on his neck from the Feb. 14 attack.
“I was sitting there on the phone like that, and he just,” Clark said while making a slashing motion across his throat.
Family describes trauma from attack
During Thursday’s court proceedings, Clarke’s mother, Lori Clarke, described the trauma the attack caused her family.
Her youngest son, who was 11, witnessed the assault.
“My youngest son, who is just 11, had to witness his brother’s neck severed as Sullivan clenched his neck, asking us if he was going to bleed out, asking us if he was going to die,” she said.
Investigators said Long walked past Sullivan and slashed his throat without warning.
Doctors told the family Sullivan could have died if the wound had been one millimeter deeper.
Sullivan told the court that although he expects to recover physically, the emotional effects will take longer to overcome.
“It hurt to get stabbed and to get stitches, but it hurt a lot more watching my mom cry every day,” he said.
Long apologizes in court
Long apologized to the family, saying he was under the influence of drugs and did not know what he was doing.
“I’m sorry for putting the family and the young men through that, but me, I didn’t know what I was doing,” Long said.
Investigators said Long was also involved in a separate incident earlier that day in which a man was struck with a sledgehammer outside a 7-Eleven.
Police initially did not arrest Long in that case, saying officers lacked sufficient probable cause. Prosecutors later filed charges connected to that incident after Sullivan was attacked.
The Clarke family said it sent a certified letter to the Daytona Beach Police Department seeking body-camera footage and other evidence from the day of the attack.
Sullivan continues to recover from his physical injuries, but his family said the emotional effects of the violence remain.
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