Final Juvenile Suspect in Murder of 3 Teens Arrested

UPDATE Apr 10, 2023 1:00 AM CDT

The final juvenile suspected in the murder of three other teens in Florida was arrested Saturday, the AP reports. US Marshals located the 16-year-old and took him into custody. He faces charges of carjacking with a firearm, aggravated assault, grand theft of a motor vehicle, fleeing or attempting to elude a law enforcement officer, and tampering with an electronic monitoring device. Prosecutors are reviewing the case to determine whether to charge the suspects as adults.

Apr 7, 2023 12:44 PM CDT

Last week, three teens were shot to death in Central Florida, and cops there now think they have at least two of the suspects in custody, though their ages are a bit of a shocker. "Not only are the victims juveniles, but the murderers are juveniles as well," Marion County Sheriff Billy Woods said at a Friday presser, per CNN, noting that the suspects and the victims are believed to have been involved with local gangs. Woods said that 17-year-old Robert Le'Andrew Robinson and Christopher De'l Atkins, 12, have been arrested and are now facing first-degree murder charges for the homicides in the Ocklawaha area, reports WESH.

Woods says a third suspect, 16-year-old Tahj Brewton, is still on the loose. Per a Friday release from the Marion County Sheriff's Office, the first murdered teen, a female, was found still alive on the night of March 30 along the side of a road in Forest Lakes Park with a gunshot wound. That victim, later IDed as 16-year-old Layla Silvernail, succumbed to her injuries at a local hospital. Deputies responded to a call the next day about a second victim, a deceased 17-year-old male, who was similarly found on the side of the road with a gunshot wound.

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On Saturday, deputies followed a tip and found Silvernail's 2015 Chevy Cruze partially sunk in a small pond near Ocklawaha, about 9 miles away from where she'd been found. In that vehicle was a deceased female juvenile, also fatally shot. Woods said during the news conference that both the victims and suspects were all affiliated with criminal gangs, involved in burglaries and robberies. "In simple terms, there is no honor among thieves," he said, per CNN, adding that the suspects left ample evidence behind. "And at some point, these three individuals turned on our three victims and murdered them." An investigation is ongoing. (More Florida stories.)