PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — Ahead of her attacker's sentence being read, Madison Schemitz testified in front of St. Johns County Judge R. Lee Smith to request the maximum sentence.
Schemitz' ex-boyfriend, Spencer Pearson, 20, stalked her for several months in the spring of 2023. She was working to get a restraining order on him when he followed her to Mr. Chubby's Wings in Ponte Vedra. When she tried to leave, he attacked her, stabbing her 17 times.
Pearson was stopped by Schemtiz' mother, who received multiple stab wounds, and Kennedy Armstrong, a Good Samaritan who was stabbed in the hand.
Schemitz suffered a spinal cord injury which rendered her paralyzed. However, with intensive physical therapy, she learned to walk again. In court Friday, she walked with a cane and support to take the stand.
She told the story of how she dated Pearson for less than six months. When they broke up, she says he immediately began behaving in ways that scared her.
"The truth is the torment, the dark cloud and the trauma I have endured dates back much longer than June 3," she said, referencing the date of the crime.
She said that at the age of 16, she deserved to be happy and have a relationship with whoever she wanted, but Pearson took that from her. During their relationship, she said he made her feel "suffocated, trapped, manipulated and controlled."
On April 2, two months before he stabbed her, Pearson began stalking her, she said. She recalled that night, where Pearson appeared in a parking lot where she had been talking with friends. When he approached, he told her he wanted to talk and she asked him to call her, feeling unsafe talking with him alone.
"That moment was the first moment I had felt that fear," she said. When she tried to leave, Pearson followed her; she even drove by his house to try to see if he would turn on to his street and leave her alone, but he did not. She pulled into a parking lot of a shopping center -- the same one where he would eventually assault her -- and told him he was scaring her and to stop following her.
He did not stop, and she eventually drove to a friend's house to shake him. She said after that, she was always afraid he would show up.
She then told the story of June 3. She said she remembered every detail -- and proved it, listing every event of that day.
Schemitz said her decision to go out for lunch that day, "would end up being (her) life or death decision."
She had been concerned that Pearson may show up at the restaurant when she went to Mr. Chubby's Wings with her mother, friend and friend's mother that day. They decided to eat there when she did not see Pearson, but he later showed up.
She said that he walked by her to "make his presence known." Everyone got up to leave to avoid him. Schemitz said, "Never in a million years did I think I would never end up making it to my car."
She remembered Pearson running towards her with a knife, a moment she said she has nightmares of to this day.
She remembered the horror of those moments, being stabbed by Pearson and the chaos afterward. She said she remembered being held in her mother's lap, who had been stabbed in the leg. She had to tell her mom to put her down because she was "bleeding onto my face and into my eyes."
She soon realized she could not feel her legs. She remembered her mother holding one of her wounds closed, and waiting four minutes until first responders got there: "The longest four minutes of my life."
Schemitz said she knew she had to try to stay alive in the ambulance and subsequently the medical helicopter as she thought of everyone who would be affected by her death.
She then told the courtroom about her experience in the hospital that day, including emergency surgeries. She remembered being afraid to be put under for surgery because she thought she would die.
Schemitz recalled her mother telling her that her spinal cord was lacerated, and she would be paralyzed. But she always believed she would walk again.
She told the courtroom: "On June 3, 2023, the defendant attacked and stabbed me 17 times with the intent of killing me... I survived the attack and have continued to survive every single day. I know I am so blessed to live. Your Honor, those months following the attack are so vivid. the events of the attack are still so vivid and so real."
She explained that she could not sleep because she would see the image of Pearson running towards her. If she fell asleep, she dreamt she was killed by him or one of his family members.
She also detailed her experience recovering from her injuries, calling her mom and all of her family members when she moved her foot for the first time.
"On June 3, 2023, I was given my own life sentence by the defendant," she told Judge Smith. "And I plead with you that the defendant receives the same justified sentence and deserved punishment."