JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Part of an interview between the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office and a boy, who was 12 years old when he murdered a 54-year-old homeless man in June 2014, was released Monday by the State Attorney's Office.
Sharron Townsend, now 15, pleaded guilty in June to second-degree murder in the shooting death of Thomas Trent.
Townsend's sentencing date is scheduled for February. He faces 10 to 40 years in prison.
The interrogation video shows Townsend speaking with detectives and, in other parts, talking with his mother. Townsend doesn't say much in the video, but when he does speak, it's soft and very short answers.
“The tears in your eyes that are about to come out, do you feel for what happened? It’s a difference in somebody. Are you the type of person who just doesn’t care about anybody, and you’re just that evil at age 12? I don’t know any 12-year-old or 13 -- I don’t know any kid your age like that. Are you evil?" the lead detective asked Townsend in the video.
He replied, "No."
In another part of the video, his mother is in the room with Townsend, asking for the truth.
"They're trying to put you away for life, your whole life. So basically, if you don't say nothing, everything is on you," his mother said.
Townsend kept changing his story when being interviewed by police. In one version of the story he told JSO, Townsend said that Trent came at him with a knife, and it was another teen who fired the fatal shot. He also claimed rats chased him into the alley where the murder took place.
Attorney Gene Nichols, who is not affiliated with the case, explained the role that the video could play in Townsend's sentencing.
"A lot of what he told the Sheriff's Office, how he affected what he said, his conversations with mother -- they will all play a role. I'm sure he has been evaluated and they will have received some of those tapes and can give opinions based on what they see, what his state of mind was," Nicholas said.
Because Townsend is a juvenile, if he is sentenced to more than 25 years, the sentence will be reviewed.
The Department of Corrections has a special prison for juveniles, where Townsend will be housed with other minors until he turns 18. At that point, he will go into the adult population.
Townsend was 12 when he fatally shot transient
Sharron Townsend was charged as an adult after he shot Thomas Trent in a parking lot on 103rd Street. Trent's body was found June 28, 2014.
Police said Townsend shot Trent once in the head. The arrest report said the boy admitted to shooting him with a .22-caliber gun. Police said the murder weapon was never found.
Investigators said Townsend and Trent (pictured below) did not know one another. Police said the killing appeared to be random, because Trent was not robbed. Townsend was identified as one of two boys seen running from the scene in security video from a nearby business.
Police said the second boy implicated Townsend, who they said later confessed.
Townsend was on probation at the time on a previous arrest for burglary.