(MCT) — FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Florida teenager Wayne Treacy was sentenced Monday to 20 years for trying to murder Josie Lou Ratley by stomping on her head with a pair of steel-toed boots in retaliation for a taunting text message that made light of the recent suicide of his brother.

The sentencing capped a 31/2-hour hearing in which lawyers asked Broward Circuit Judge David Haimes to weigh the horror and brutality of the crime against the demonstrated mental illness and promising academic career of the teenage perpetrator.