Teen Suspects Could Be Tried As Adults In Miami Gardens Murder
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MIAMI GARDENS (CBSMiami) -- Prosecutors have announced in court that they will take a murder case to a grand jury to try teenage suspects as adults.
That's welcome news to the victim's family, who is now preparing for a funeral.
Devon Vickers and Quamaine McMillian, both 15, and 16-year-old Rachid Jacques are facing first-degree murder and first-degree attempted murder charges in the death of 17-year-old Roderick Sweeting.
They're accused of ambushing Sweeting and his 15-year-old brother, in a shooting so brutal, police said the bullets severed their target's spinal cord.
Sweeting died just steps from his home with his mother and brother by his side. His brother escaped without harm.
"It's very hard for our family and right now we're grieving," said Sweeting's aunt, Chenelle Smith.
Her only comfort comes with the knowledge that police believe they have the right suspects and prosecutors intend to try them as adults.
"They need to be charged as adults because what they did to my nephew was very wrong," Smith said.
Investigators say surveillance video, fingerprints lifted from the fence surrounding the Miami Gardens apartment complex, and witnesses confirm the three teen suspects were the killers.
The arrest affidavit alleges all three fired their weapons and shot Sweeting more than 20 times.
"The kids is our future. If all of our kids is getting gunned down and ambushed, when we're old, they're our future and it's got to stop," Smith added.
Surveillance video from a nearby business showed the final moments of Sweeting's life as he popped into a barber shop for a haircut. But because his barber wasn't there, he left.
From there, he headed off to the parking lot of his apartment complex where he took his last breath.
The attorney for Rachid Jaques says his client is part of a group police identify as a violent gang, but does not believe his client is guilty.
"That's definitely not in his DNA, for sure. I have known the family for a while. I have seen the kid grow up with loving parents. There's nothing in his past nor in his present that seems to suggest he would do such a thing," said defense attorney Andre Pierre.
Minutes after learning prosecutors intended to try her son as an adult, Jaques' mother collapsed to the ground.
She was treated by paramedics and was put in an ambulance, alert and conscious.
All three suspects remain locked up in juvenile detention until their next court hearing here, April 29th, assuming a grand jury does not find that they should move to the adult court system first.
