Man, now 21, apologizes for his classmate’s death
Palm Beach County School Board Chairman Chuck Shaw testified Thursday in support of a former student to be sentenced soon for gunning down a 16-year-old classmate on a suburban Lantana street corner six years ago.
Shaw remarked how strange it was that the longscheduled hearing for Frank Quarles, convicted last fall of second-degree murder, commenced just hours after Wednesday’s school shooting massacre in Broward that left 17 people dead.
“It’s amazing this was all happening today,” Shaw said, noting how South Florida will continue to wrestle with juvenile justice challenges for the foreseeable future.
Assistant State Attorney Jill Richstone challenged Shaw’s opinion that Quarles, 21, can be rehabilitated and become a productive member of society.
“We have a dead minor in this case, you do realize that?” the prosecutor asked, as victim Michael Coogle-Robertson’s mother, Janice, sat in the courtroom a few feet away.
An educator for more than
four decades, Shaw said he was only speaking as a friend of the Quarles family who knew the youth since he was his elementary school principal. He said it’s important to remember juveniles tend to act impulsively.
“Immaturity has a tremendous impact on the things they do,” Shaw said.
Quarles agreed, when later in the hearing he spoke about the crime for the first time since his arrest in the Feb. 8, 2012, shooting. It happened when he was 15.
“I stand today as a man and just wish I could have thought before I acted,” he said. “This is something I will regret for the rest of my life because the damage is irreversible. … Mike did not deserve what happened to him.”
According to trial evidence, Quarles confronted Coogle-Robertson about 4:30 p.m. in the Seminole Manor neighborhood near Santaluces High School. They argued about a bike that Quarles said was stolen from him.
Quarles took back the bike and left, but returned about 20 minutes later with a loaded .38-caliber revolver. Quarles said the weapon inadvertently fired.
“It was never my intention for Mike to be shot, especially after he gave me my bike back,” he said.
“I am very sorry for the loss of Michael but I swear on my freedom that it was an accident, regardless of what anybody says,” he said Thursday. “Please forgive me.”
The prosecutor argued in the trial that Quarles was angry and intentionally pulled the trigger on Coogle-Robertson, a sophomore who played on the school’s football team.
“Shooting and killing him was easy,” Richstone said in her closing argument. “When you don’t care, you can do things like that.”
At Thursday’s hearing, Quarles’ mom, dad and older sister took turns apologizing to the victim’s loved ones and asking for their forgiveness. They also expressed their sadness for Quarles spending every day of the past six years behind bars.
The prosecutor says the conviction is punishable by up to life in prison, and a minimum of 25 years.
Circuit Judge Samantha Schosberg Feuer said the sentencing hearing will conclude Thursday.