JESUP, Ga. (TCN) — An 11-year-old boy was reportedly ordered to spend two years in a juvenile detention facility after he pleaded guilty to drowning an 8-year-old boy who was found dead in a borrow pit hours after he was reported missing.
WTOC-TV reports the 11-year-old entered the plea for charges of simple battery, concealing the death of another, involuntary manslaughter, and criminal trespass in connection with the death of Noah Bush. His sentence is reportedly a state maximum, but Bush’s mother said it “isn’t justice.”
Bush’s mother, Demetrice Bush, said after the sentence, “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.”
According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, a 10-year-old boy also received a sentence of two years for his role in Bush’s death.
Bush was reported missing to the Wayne County Sheriff’s Office on May 15 at 9:10 p.m. Over the course of the next several hours, deputies and other law enforcement officials began searching the area for Bush. On May 16 at 12:07 a.m., dispatch got a call from someone who said they “hear a child calling ‘Mama.'” Deputies went to the location but did not find anyone. At 12:30 a.m., a K-9 found a pair of children’s shoes near a body of water. The shoes were later confirmed to be Bush’s.
Officials had road crews open a gate to access clay pits, and while there, they reportedly discovered footprints close to the water. Search and rescue teams went into the water and discovered Bush’s body at around 8 a.m.
An autopsy later determined Bush’s cause of death was drowning.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports the sheriff’s office first said Bush drowned after he walked into the pit, but his family argued that could not be the case because he had a fear of deep water and would not go in of his own volition. Later, investigators reportedly learned Bush was pushed into the water and held down until he died. Natalie Hardison, a mother of one of the juveniles, was arrested for giving false statements to police.
WTOC shared a video of a press conference after the sentencing. An attorney for Bush’s family, Francys Johnson, said, “The story they were told was that their son had accidentally drowned. They knew that was not true then, and today the same was confirmed in court as the 11-year-old juvenile confessed to this horrific homicide.”
Johnson continued, “Just because something is legal does not make it just. In this case, a two-year confinement is not right or just.”
He said it was a “day to tell the truth” and that the “racial animus in the heart of the 11-year-old is what stirred this up in the first place. We all have a responsibility to push back against that racial animus and hatred that would lead 11-year-olds and 10-year-olds to want to fight and take the life of another person. That what’s this case was about at its core.”
Bush was Black and the two juveniles are white.
Johnson argued the “joy of Noah offended the 11-year-old. The peace, happiness of Noah offended this 11-year-old. He wanted to do something about it.”
Demetrice Bush said, “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.”