Michael Allen Usan is an American lawyer and legal official who has served as a judge in the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit Court of Florida since 2010. Usan gained national attention in 2023 as the presiding judge of the trial for the murderers of rapper/singer Jahseh Onfroy, best known as

XXXTentacion Jahseh Dwayne Ricardo Onfroy (January 23, 1998 – June 18, 2018), known professionally as XXXTentacion, was an American rapper and singer-songwriter. Though a controversial figure due to his widely publicized legal troubles, XXXTentacion gai ...

Life and career

Usan graduated from the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota Twin Cities (historically known as University of Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint ...

for his

B.A. A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree ...

in 1984 and from

Wake Forest University Wake Forest University (WFU) is a private research university in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, United States. Founded in 1834, the university received its name from its original location in Wake Forest, north of Raleigh, North Carolina. The R ...

for his J.D. in 1987. Usan was a Judge Advocate General in the

U.S. Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its origins to 1 ...

from 1987 to 1992. Prior to entering private practice in 1993, he also served as a prosecutor for a brief period of time in

Broward County Broward County ( ) is a County (United States), county in Florida, United States, located in the Miami metropolitan area. It is Florida's second-most populous county after Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County and the List of the most ...

. Up until his court appointment in 2010, he practiced criminal defense law in

Fort Lauderdale Fort Lauderdale ( ) is a coastal city located in the U.S. state of Florida, north of Miami along the Atlantic Ocean. It is the county seat of and most populous city in Broward County with a population of 182,760 at the 2020 census, making it ...

XXXTentacion murder trial

Usan gained national attention as the presiding judge over the trial for three of the murderers of rapper and singer-songwriter Jahseh Onfroy (

). He gained attention for his sternness towards the defense attorneys for Onfroy's murderers. He was also commended for his harshness towards the murderers and his compassion towards Onfroy's family and fanbase, delivering a direct speech to Onfroy's family and fans about Onfroy's legacy before the murderers' sentencing, and with Usan stating to shooter Michael Boatwright at his sentencing that he is glad that Boatwright will die in prison. He sentenced two of the three murderers to the mandatory

life in prison Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment under which the convicted individual is to remain incarcerated for the rest of their natural life (or until pardoned or commuted to a fixed term). Crimes that result in life imprisonment are co ...

without the possibility of

parole Parole, also known as provisional release, supervised release, or being on paper, is a form of early release of a prisoner, prison inmate where the prisoner agrees to abide by behavioral conditions, including checking-in with their designated ...

, and sentenced Michael Boatwright, the shooter, to an uncommonly high sentence for a single murder: two consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole, plus another consecutive 30 years.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Usan, Michael 21st-century American judges Florida state court judges Year of birth missing (living people) Living people University of Minnesota alumni Wake Forest University alumni