{"id":204208,"date":"2026-03-24T18:02:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-24T18:02:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/204208\/"},"modified":"2026-03-24T18:02:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T18:02:11","slug":"miami-gardens-track-coach-sentenced-for-sexually-abuse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/204208\/","title":{"rendered":"Miami Gardens track coach sentenced for sexually abuse"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Darius<\/p>\n

Darius Lawshea appears in court for his sentencing on Tuesday, March 24, 2026. Lawshea was convicted of sexually abusing a 13-year-old girl.<\/p>\n

NBC6<\/p>\n

A Miami Gardens track coach convicted of sexually abusing a 13-year-old girl \u2014 and accused of molesting several other young girls \u2014 heard a Miami judge deliver his fate on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Andrea Ricker Wolfson sentenced Darius Lawshea to 50 years in state prison followed by 10 years of sex offender probation.<\/p>\n

For Wolfson, testimony in the trial showed Lawshea\u2019s \u201cegregious manipulation\u201d of a young girl who believed he was the \u201ckey to her future.\u201d A six-person jury took three hours on Feb. 6 to find the Miami Gardens Xpress track club founder guilty.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Miami Gardens track coach sexually abused teen athlete, jury says<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cQuite frankly, it sickens me,\u201d the judge said.<\/p>\n

\"FILE FILE – Judge Andrea Wolfson during court on Tuesday, June 24, 2025 at the Miami-Dade criminal courthouse in downtown Miami, Fla. Alie Skowronski askowronski@miamiherald.com <\/p>\n

Also on Tuesday, Lawshea was going to plead guilty to six other cases in exchange for a 25-year prison sentence. But as Wolfson was taking Lawshea\u2019s plea, he glanced at his family, and in tears said he was not guilty. The victims in the cases were all student-athletes in his track and field program, court records show.<\/p>\n

The first victim to come forward said she was abused in 2010 but didn\u2019t report the abuse to police until a decade later because \u201cshe was fearful because Mr. Lawshea was loved by everyone in the community and she didn\u2019t want to get into trouble.\u201d She said she was pushed to report the abuse after discovering that Lawshea also molested her younger sister.<\/p>\n

Victims speak out<\/p>\n

Facing the judge, one of the victims said Lawshea\u2019s track program, a place where some of the best runners in South Florida trained, became her home away from home. But that changed when Lawshea showed extra interest in her.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow I understand when he said I was special, he meant something completely different,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\"Darius Darius Lawshea is fingerprinted in court after his sentencing on Tuesday, March 24, 2026. Lawshea was convicted of sexually abusing a 13-year-old girl. NBC6 <\/p>\n

The victim said she \u201cwatched her innocence taken by someone who was supposed to guide her.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cA real coach protects you. A real coach respects boundaries. A real coach does not abuse power … for their own benefit,\u201d the victim said.<\/p>\n

For the victim, the track field once felt like freedom, but it devolved into a place where she would have panic attacks. Despite her deep lasting pain, she still runs.<\/p>\n

\u201cI force myself to keep running … because I refused to let him take that from me,\u201d the victim said.<\/p>\n

Prosecutor Lily Wisset read statements from several victims who couldn\u2019t be present in court. The girls said coming forward was the \u201chardest thing [they] had done\u201d but necessary so other girls wouldn\u2019t have to suffer at Lawshea\u2019s hands.<\/p>\n

Lawshea \u201ctook away a place that should have been safe,\u201d Wisset read.<\/p>\n

Lawshea, too, addressed the court \u2014 going on a lengthy monologue about how his arrest changed his life and how he had dedicated himself to being a track coach. He denied sexually abusing any of the girls.<\/p>\n

Several of Lawshea\u2019s loved ones, including his wife of 16 years and his godmother, begged the judge to have mercy on the coach.<\/p>\n

The judge set a plea hearing for May 12.<\/p>\n

\"Darius Darius Lawshea Miami-Dade Corrections <\/p>\n


\n \"Profile
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

Grethel Aguila<\/a><\/p>\n

Miami Herald<\/p>\n

Grethel covers courts and the criminal justice system for the Miami Herald. She graduated from the University of Florida (Go Gators!), speaks Spanish and Arabic and loves animals, traveling, basketball and good storytelling. Grethel also attends law school part time.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Darius Lawshea appears in court for his sentencing on Tuesday, March 24, 2026. Lawshea was convicted of sexually…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":204209,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[10634,8219,93863,123,2431,125,124,4281,1311,28053,1934],"class_list":["post-204208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-coach","tag-court","tag-darius-lawshea","tag-miami","tag-miami-gardens","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news","tag-rape","tag-sexual-assault","tag-track-and-field","tag-trial"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=204208"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204208\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/204209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=204208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=204208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}