A grand jury in Florida this week indicted three minors, including a 12-year-old, in the murders of three teenagers last month.
Prosecutors in Marion County, charged the defendants — ages 12, 16 and 17 — with first-degree murder with a firearm, as well as robbery with a firearm and evidence tampering, according to the Ocala Star-Banner.
All three defendants were charged as adults.
Following the grand jury proceedings, Chief Assistant State Attorney Walter Forgie told the Star-Banner: “The three victims of this crime were mercilessly executed at close range and left to die by the defendants in this case. Motivated by greed, along with a complete disregard for the value of human life, the defendants in this case are responsible for the deaths of three human beings.”
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“These murders represent the most serious crimes in our judicial system and society and warrant that the defendants be charged as adults and held accountable to the fullest extent of the law,” Forgie added. “Our office is focused on bringing justice to the victims, and the families of the victims, of these terrible crimes.”
The Star-Banner declined to name the defendants, citing their ages.
Between March 30 and April 1, sheriff’s deputies discovered that two 16-year-old girls and a 17-year-old boy were shot to death in Ocklawaha, a rural area in southeastern Marion County.
Two were dumped alongside the road, although one of them later died in the hospital. The third was found in the trunk of the suspects’ car that had been abandoned in a lake.
As The Free Press reported in April, the 12- and 17-year-olds robbed and shot at another victim just before the murdered the teenagers.
The 16-year-old defendant, meanwhile, was on probation and “intensive” home detention for two separate 2022 cases. In one of them, he pointed a gun at another juvenile who was sitting in a car waiting on his mother to get a pizza. He then stole the car.
The case drew national attention at the time of the suspects’ arrest.
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In a widely viewed press conference on April 7, Sheriff Billy Woods said, “The fact is: society fails them. We do not hold our juveniles accountable. We minimize their actions.”
“I am a father,” he continued. “But here’s the one thing my boys know: growing up, the freaking barber had my permission to whip their a–es. … Our school districts, not just here, across this state and across this nation need to stop minimizing the actions of their students. Hold them accountable. That’s where the failure is.”
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