Man Jailed for Slashing 13-Year-Old’s Neck at Slingshot Ride

A Florida man who nearly killed a 13-year-old boy by slashing his throat at Daytona Beach’s popular boardwalk has been sentenced to decades in prison.

Jermaine Lynn Long, 44, pleaded no contest to attempted second-degree murder, aggravated battery and six additional charges stemming from three unrelated cases, according to the Volusia County State Attorney’s Office. He received a 45-year prison sentence.

Police were called to the Daytona Beach Boardwalk at about 10 p.m. on Feb. 14 after reports of a stabbing, according to a probable cause affidavit. Officers found the teenage victim with what authorities described as a “severe laceration” across his neck.

Paramedics transported the boy to a hospital, where doctors used 13 stitches to close the wound. After witnesses provided a description of the suspected attacker, officers located Long near Joe’s Crab Shack. Police said he was carrying a box cutter and a silver knife.

The victim, Sullivan “Sully” Clarke, told the court during Long’s sentencing that the attack left him with a permanent neck scar. While he continues to recover physically, he said the emotional impact has been even more difficult.

“It hurt to get stabbed and to get stitches, but it hurt a lot more watching my mom cry every day,” he said, according to a courtroom report from local ABC affiliate WFTV.

Sullivan’s mother, Lori Clarke, told the court that the attack’s effects extended beyond her injured son.

“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.

Sullivan told investigators that he never saw the person who attacked him.

“He did not realize he had been cut until other people on scene in a car nearby informed him that he had a cut on his neck,” police wrote in the affidavit.

Witnesses reported seeing Long “lingering” near the area before the stabbing. Investigators allege that he used an edged weapon to slash the boy’s neck. Long acknowledged putting his hands on the victim but denied cutting him. He asked for an attorney, ending the police interview.

In an interview with local Fox affiliate WOFL, Sullivan said he had been walking with his family and looking at his phone after spending the day at the Daytona 500 races when the attack suddenly occurred.

“The crazy thing is I turned at the perfect time because I was on the phone and I looked up at the slingshot and that’s how he got the side of my neck and not right here,” he said, pointing toward his Adam’s apple.

Sullivan’s mother initially believed the encounter involved an attempted robbery. That changed, she said, when the suspect allegedly produced a knife.

Speaking with local CBS affiliate WKMG, Lori Clarke described how narrowly her son survived the attack.

“One more millimeter and he probably wouldn’t have made it,” Lori Clarke said.

Sullivan’s father, Jerod Clarke, said he was shocked by the severity of the injury.

“As soon as we realized what happened, I could see his neck gashed right open,” Jerod Clarke told WOFL. “I could see all the way down to the meat.”

The attack appeared completely senseless, Sullivan’s father said.

“Who would ever expect someone would attack a 13-year-old boy?” his father said.

Long reportedly attacked someone with a sledgehammer earlier in the day, but cops declined to arrest him.

“An extremely dangerous individual is now off the streets for 45 years,” State Attorney R.J. Larizza said in a statement. “Hopefully, he will not survive his incarceration.”

Long apologized for his actions and said he was under the influence of drugs at the time of the incident.

“I’m sorry for putting the family and the young men through that, but me, I didn’t know what I was doing,” Long reportedly said.

The post Man who slashed 13-year-old boy’s neck ‘all the way down to the meat’ as child looked up at slingshot ride is headed to prison first appeared on Law & Crime.