Jul 26, 2008 12:31 pm US/Eastern
Teen Accused Of Strangling Girl To Death After Sex
Police: ''We had no reason to believe that she was in danger... based on our conversations with the family"
FORT LAUDERDALE (CBS4) ―
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Jason Hartley appears Friday in Judge Michael Orlando's court. He is accused of killing 14-year-old Neica Gibbs.
Miami Herald
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A foul odor led residents to a decomposing body by a Ft. Lauderdale dumpster. It was the body of missing 13-year old girl Neica Gibbs.
CBS
The teenage boy accused of killing 13-year old Neica Gibbs, whose body was found next to a dumpster after she was missing for three weeks, has been ordered to stay in juvenile custody.
15-year old Jason Hartley appeared before Judge Michael Orlando Friday afternoon. The judge ruled that there was probable cause to hold Hartley until his next hearing on August 20th. Prosecutors will decide whether to try Jason as an adult, officials said Friday.
Hartley has been charged with one count of homicide in connection with Gibbs' death. Police are now saying that Hartley had a crush on Gibbs and allegedly strangled her after the two had sex and got into an argument in his mother's trailer home.
"They became involved in a verbal and physical altercation which ultimately led to the death of Neica Gibbs," said Frank Sousa, with Ft. Lauderdale Police.
According to the probable cause affidavit, Hartley confessed to the crime. "The defendant's confession was after Miranda Rights and consistent with physical evidence taken from the crime scene."
The girl's body was found wrapped in a tarp behind a garbage dumpster Tuesday. Ironically, Gibbs' body was found by the suspect's mother, Lorraine Boggess.
Boggess told
CBS4's Ted Scouten, "He had a tread mill in there and I guess there were straps hanging off it, from what he told me and she got caught in it and that's how she died." She went on to say that her son told her he got angry when Gibbs made fun of him after having intercourse and it was his first time.
"From what he told me, it was his first time and she was making fun of him that way. She threatened him with something in the bedroom. He got mad and they started fighting and they struggled because she was threatening to go get her boyfriend and come back to my house and do harm to my son."
Before his arrest, Hartley also spoke to
CBS4'S Scouten and told him that he recalled seeing Gibbs about four weeks earlier. When asked what she was doing, he said, "She just stopped over and talked to us about some stuff. She told us she was going to the Diamond Girl on Davie Boulevard, but apparently, something bad must have happened."
Boggess, Hartley's mother, was shocked her son was charged with the girl's death. "I broke down and cried. The cops asked me if I knew anything, and I said I had no clue," she told
CBS4'S Sharrie Williams. She added, "I'm sorry. I had no clue, but if it's any consolation, he's in jail he's got to pay a price for it."
Boggess and her two sons, Jason and a 7-year old, are neighbors of the Pendergrass family whom Gibbs was visiting at the time of her disappearance.
Gibbs was supposed to be attending a sleepover at the Pendergrass home, located in the 2700 block of Southwest Sixth Drive, when she disappeared three weeks ago. Gibbs had been friends with Sherry Pendergrass since elementary school. When Sherry's mom, Linda Pendergrass, arrived home the night of the sleepover, her daughter was sleeping but Neica was gone. She began searching for the teen immediately.
Pendergrass told Scouten that she remembered the girl saying, "'I don't want to go home,' she cried. 'I want to stay here with you miss, Linda.'"
Sadly, Linda Pendergrass saw the body after she was called to the trash bin area near her home by Boggess, Hartley's mother. It was found wrapped in blue tarp. Pendergrass prayed the body was not Neica Gibbs.
"The first thing that popped into my mind when she said a young teenager, I thought it was my niece," said Pendergrass. "I just panicked, I just went like 'Oh God please don't let it be her.'
Friends and family have been visiting the apartment in Ft. Lauderdale, where Neica lived with her grandmother, 12-year-old brother William, and an aunt.
"Nothing's gonna bring my granddaughter back," said her grandmother Barbara Queer. "Why did he have to kill her?"
A woman who wished to be identified as Toni said Neica was a good student who recently graduated from 8th grade at Sunrise Middle School.
Elizabeth and Wayne Manning are grieving the loss of a girl they felt was like their niece. Elizabeth said, "It just hurts to see that somebody would hurt somebody who's so beautiful."
Many visitors cried, asking the same questions: How did this happen?
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