The New York couple who attacked a teenage Sesame Place worker over face masks was sentenced to prison

A New York man was sentenced to five to 10 years in prison Monday for assaulting a Sesame Place employee who asked him and his girlfriend to don face masks at the park in August 2020, an attack that left the teen worker with a fractured jaw.

Bucks County President Judge Wallace H. Bateman chastised Troy McCoy, 41, and his girlfriend, Shakerra Bonds, 32, for what he called a “violent, unprovoked assault on a defenseless teenager.”

“The impact this had on the victim is immeasurable,” Bateman said, noting 19-year-old Dillon Mays underwent multiple surgeries on his jaw and teeth after McCoy sucker-punched him.

A jury in July convicted McCoy of aggravated assault and related offenses, and Bonds for simple assault and disorderly conduct. Bateman sentenced her to four-to-24 months in the county jail and had harsh words for her, saying she showed “absolutely no remorse” and lied on the stand during the trial, saying she struck the teen in self-defense.

The attack took place in August 2020, when McCoy, Bonds, and their family went to Sesame Place at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the park required guests to wear face masks.

At the park, Mays had told McCoy to pull his face mask up over his nose, according to trial testimony, but McCoy scoffed and said he didn’t need to listen to Mays, because he was old enough to be his father.

Bonds later confronted Mays, argued with him, and struck him in the face. McCoy watched the scuffle unfold, and then ran up to Mays, punching from behind with enough force to knock him to the ground.

The couple then fled the scene, refusing to talk to the park security officers who followed them to their car. They were later arrested at their apartment in the Bronx, after authorities tracked them through their license plate.

In a statement read by prosecutors in court Monday, Mays said his fractured jaw is still healing, and dislocates occasionally. He said he has suffered from bouts of depression and anxiety ever since the assault.

“I find myself angry that a grown man would do this to me,” Mays wrote in his statement.

His mother, Chantel, said the attack had caused a shift in her son’s personality, and caused him to resent Sesame Place, one of his favorite places as a child.

“As a mother, to listen to what my son has gone through is devastating,” she said. “My child did not deserve this beating, especially from two adults who are parents themselves.”

Bateman also heard from McCoy’s mother, Georgianna, about how he’s the “glue” for his extended family and helped motivate her to stop using drugs and reunite with her children.

One of his childhood friends, Jaiquan Winters, said he knew McCoy only as a kindhearted person, one who would never hurt anyone.

“It’s an unfortunate incident,” Winters said. “But I can honestly say I have never seen a violent bone in his body.”

Addressing Bateman, McCoy apologized and asked for leniency.

“I really didn’t mean to injure him at all,” he told the judge. “It’s really unfortunate that he got injured by my misjudgment and reaction to the situation.”

But Bateman was unswayed.