A 21-year-old who overslept and missed jury duty was given 10 days in jail

Don’t oversleep when you have jury duty. Deandre Somerville (21) received a 10-day jail sentence and a criminal record for oversleeping and blowing off his service. He was also put on probation for a year and given 150 hours of community service.

From Boston.com:

Somerville lives with his grandparents and helps care for his grandfather who recently had surgery and has trouble walking. Somerville helps him around the house and takes him to therapy and the grocery store while his grandmother is at work.

He was out playing basketball when his worried grandmother called to say there was a police officer at the door with a court summons.

“My grandfather said, ‘Just go in and be honest,’” said Somerville. “I’ve never had a criminal background, never been arrested, never been in handcuffs. The most I’ve ever gotten was a traffic ticket so I was thinking it wouldn’t be that bad.”

Inside the courtroom, he said Judge John Kastrenakes explained that Somerville’s negligence delayed the court by 45 minutes.

“They handcuffed me in the courtroom after that,” said Somerville, who spent the next 10 days in jail. He said his first jail experience wasn’t scary, but he prayed daily and wrote in a notebook.