An 11-year-old boy has been sentenced in the drowning death of eight-year-old Noah Bush in Georgia, the Atlanta Black Star reports.
The body of Noah Bush was found on May 16 after authorities in southeast Georgia searching for the boy drained the county-owned pit. Bush had been reported missing a day earlier after he went outside to play and never returned, his family’s legal team said.
Wayne County authorities did not initially suspect foul play. The child had wandered into the water-filled pit and drowned, they said at the time.
Following an investigation, a medical examiner ruled Noah’s cause of death was drowning and his manner of death a homicide. Wayne County officials charged two children, ages 10 and 11, in connection to Noah’s death.
The 11-year-old pleaded guilty to four counts of involuntary manslaughter, simple battery, concealing the death of another, and criminal trespass.
Both he and the 10-year-old, whose names were not released, were sentenced to two years’ confinement, the maximum punishment given their ages, Bush’s family attorney Mawuli Davi said. The younger child was sentenced last month. Juvenile court proceedings are mostly confidential.
“This isn’t justice”
During the sentencing hearing on Thursday (August 22), the boy confessed to pushing Bush into the water and holding his head underneath.
“I feel he deserves life in prison. He took his life and never showed remorse for his actions,” Bush’s mother, Demetrice, said during her victim impact statement. “Even though he knows right from wrong, even though he lied to keep himself out of trouble because he knew what he did was wrong, he’s treated as a victim when it’s my son who’s dead.”
His grieving mother said she thought the children responsible for her son’s death received a lenient sentence, calling Thursday one of the hardest days of her life.
“This isn’t justice,” she told reporters outside the courthouse. “My baby was 8 years old with a full life ahead of him, and two years is what the state of Georgia calls justice for an entire life that’s lost … There is no peace, there is no comfort, there is no closure for me. I will live with this for the rest of my life.
A GoFundMe page has been created by Noah’s second grade teacher to assist with funeral expenses.