Nigger Boy, 15, gets 60 years for StL County sex attack of girl, 6

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/laworder/story/A5E1FF8453EF5C2586257394005C3087?OpenDocument

Sherman Burnett Jr.

http://images.stltoday.com/stltoday/resources/burnett16story.jpg

Boy, 15, gets 60 years for StL County sex attack of girl, 6

11/15/2007

CLAYTON -- A judge sentenced to 60 years in prison this morning a teenager

who had pleaded guilty of kidnapping, beating and sexually assaulting a

neighbor in Spanish Lake on Nov. 11, 2005, when he was 13 and she was 6.

St. Louis County Circuit Judge Melvyn W. Wiesman imposed the sentence on

Sherman Burnett Jr., now 15 and the youngest inmate ever housed in the

county jail.

In imposing the lengthy sentence -- Burnett will be ineligible for parole

until at least the year 2056, when he is 64 -- Wiesman rejected confining

Burnett in a juvenile offender program in Montgomery City, Mo., where

Burnett could have gotten a chance at probation as early as age 17.

Testimony this morning disclosed that Burnett had blamed, in part, the

6-year-old for his own misfortune and had denied any sexual assaults in a

recent interview with a state employee, even though he had pleaded guilty on

Aug. 10 of sodomy and attempted rape, along with child kidnapping and

assault.

Brent Buerck is a senior program administrator for the Missouri Division

of Youth Services. He testified that he interviewed Burnett to see if the

teen would be eligible for a dual jurisdiction juvenile program of his

agency and the Department of Corrections.

Under questioning by prosecutor Rob Livergood, Buerck said he was told by

Burnett that the incident was caused because the victim had thrown a rock at

him, and Burnett had denied he tried to rape her. Buerck confirmed that

there was no evidence in any of the records or police reports he saw to

substantiate Burnett's new claims or to rebut the victim's statements about

the attack on Nov. 11, 2005.

Buerck said, however, that it was not unusual for a teenager to minimize

his crimes, and Burnett had qualified for the program. Buerck added under

Livergood's questioning that Burnett had told him: ``he beat her up severely

so she wouldn't remember anything.''

Under the juvenile offender program sought by defense attorney Nellie

Ribaudo, Burnett would get counseling, sex offender treatment and education

that he couldn't get in prison. He would have hearings when he turned 17 to

see if he should continue in the program and again at 21. In that hearing,

Buerck said, a judge would decide if Burnett was eligible for probation or

would be turned over to the prison system for the balance of his sentence.

Wiesman rejected juvenile custody, saying Burnett was an inappropriate

candidate ``in light of the severity of the assault and what appears to be a

threat to the community.''

The judge then sentenced Burnett to 20 years in prison each on counts of

child kidnapping and assault; and 10 years each on charges of sodomy and

atttempted rape. The sentences are to be served consecutively and Burnett

will be ineligible for parole until he serves 85 percent or 51 years.

Burnett showed no emotion when Wiesman pronounced sentence. Seven

members of his family appeared stunned. Also in court this morning were the

victim and her mother. They made no oral statement.

From her hospital bed at St. Louis Children's Hospital two days after

the assault, the victim picked out Burnett from a school yearbook picture.

She had half an ear torn off, a lascerated liver, a skull fracture and

bruises from the top of her head to her thighs.

She told police she couldn't walk after the attack. She crawled through

a hole in a fence near railroad tracks but could go no further and, as night

descended in woods near her house, she tried to cover herself with leaves. A

police officer found her the next morning after a massive neighborhood

search.