A former Florida high school star athlete who stabbed his ex-girlfriend 15 times, leaving her paralized, and slashed her mother as well has been sentenced to life in prison.

Spencer Pearson, 20, pleaded guilty to the June 2023 attack on Madison Schemitz and her mother, Jaclyn Roge, in July, the Florida Times Union reported. Pearson’s mother burst into loud sobs as Judge R. Lee Smith pronounced her son’s sentence on Friday.

Pearson was charged with two counts of attempted first-degree murder and one count of aggravated battery causing serious bodily injury in the attack at Mr. Chubby’s Wings in Jacksonville. As CrimeOnline reported, Schemitz and Pearson, both athletes at Ponte Verde High School, broke up in April but had made threatening statements and stalked Schemitz since that time.

Roge had filed a complaint against Spencer a week before the attack because of his harassment of her daughter. The accusation alleges that Spencer harassed Madison on social media, left notes on her car, and followed “her on her way to school.”

Schemitz, a friend, and Roge arrived at the restaurant for lunch on June 3, 2023, but immediately began to leave when they spotted Pearson, who followed them outside and stabbed Schemitz and then her mother when she tried to intervene. He also stabbed a bystander, Kennedy Armstrong, who also tried to help and then slashed his own throat.

Fifteen witnesses testified at the sentencing hearing, including family members from both sides, law enforcement, and a coach, the Times Union said. Schemitz herself delivered an emotional statement that included a video montage of her treatment and recovery since the attack.

“I’ve thought about this day, this moment, this statement, every single day for the last 538 days — 538,” she said, reading her prepared remarks. “Five hundred and thirty-eight days of living in true torment. Five hundred and thirty-eight days that regardless of the circumstances always have the same dark cloud looming over. Five hundred and thirty-eight days of constantly reliving the trauma the defendant put me through. Your honor, I say 538 because that is how many days since June 3, 2023.”

“June 3rd, 2023, was without a doubt the absolute worst, most traumatic day of my life. And I remember every single second of it,” she said.

Pearson, in his statement, apologized ot Schemitz and her family for what he did and said the while he was “sure June 3rd was the worst day of their lives, it was also the worst day of mine and always will be.”

“On this day I hurt three innocent people,” he said. “I think of my terrible crimes committed every second of every day. It’s on my mind constantly and this will never, ever change. … I can’t begin to imagine what I’ve put them through and the negative effects I’ve had on everyone involved. I understand the anger and hatred they all have for me.”

Roge expressed that angry in her comments.

“I cannot believe I ever loved you and I worried about you, and I generally thought you were a good kid,” she said, addressing Pearson. “What a fool I was, and I have to figure out how to get over that guilt that I have. You’re evil and that’s that. You handed Madison a life sentence on June 3rd, 2023, and it only seems fitting that you get the same.”

“I have to watch my daughter struggle every night and day, because of you,” Roge said. “Struggle to breathe because her lungs were collapsed, because of you. Struggle to maintain her oxygen through two huge pneumothorax in her chest, because of you. Struggle to sit up, because of you. Struggle to brush her own teeth, because of you. Then to struggle to gain mobility back after being stabbed in her spinal cord causing paralysis, because of you. Struggle every day to regain the independence she lost, because of you.”

The judge told the court that he agrees with defense arguments that Pearson needs mental health treatment but said that wasn’t enough to warrant a lesser sentence than life.

“This court does not impose a sentence based on vengeance,” Smith said. “ … But the crime that was committed, the impact that this crime has had on Madison, Jaclyn and Kennedy, it just far outweighs any of the mitigation that this court has considered. There are just certain crimes that are committed that merit the maximum possible sentence. And this court finds that this is one of them.”

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[Featured image: Spencer Pearson/St Johns County Sheriff’s Office. Jaclyn Roge and Madison Schemitz/handout]