14-year-old Kimahri Blevins and 16-year-old Gabriel Williams are accused of shooting Troy multiple times and setting fire to her body on a Floridatown path.
Two Florida teens will face first-degree murder charges as adults over the killing of 14-year-old Danika Troy in early December, when the girl was shot multiple times and then set on fire.
Per WEAR, 14-year-old Kimahri Blevins and 16-year-old Gabriel Williams, both of Pace, Florida, were indicted on Friday on charges of First-Degree Premeditated Murder. They will be held at the Santa Rosa County Jail without bond, after previously being held in the Santa Rosa Juvenile Detention Center since December 4. The two teens will be arraigned on January 4.
The two teen boys are accused of shooting Troy multiple times and setting fire to her body on a Floridatown walking path after luring her there. The incident took place on November 30, per the New York Post, and Troy’s mother, Ashley, reported her daughter missing the following morning. Her body was found on December 2 at around 11 am by a passerby. Her body had been badly burned, and she was identified through the shoes she was wearing and her electric scooter that had been found nearby.
Santa Rosa Sheriff Bob Johnson said after the arrest of the two teen boys, "This is what major crimes [unit] calls a ground ball. The evidence pointed to them immediately. They took them into custody immediately." He added, "It’s bad enough that you kill a 14-year-old. You’re 14, you’re 16, you shoot her multiple times, and then you set her on fire."
Troy’s mother told the New York Post, "I don’t know how I’m holding up, really. Every other day, every new wave of pain and denial of how this could be real — my baby, killed. It’s nothing I ever imagined. My worst nightmare." She continued, noting Danika’s sister, "There’s an emptiness where we were once three and are now just two."
Investigators are still searching for a motive in the case, but police believe it may have stemmed from an online disagreement between the three teens that took place in November, in which Troy allegedly called Williams "worthless and a gang-banger."
The sheriff said, "They have been interviewed, but the motive that we’re getting doesn’t fit the forensics or any facts of the case." Ashley Troy said that her daughter had been friends with the two teens boys prior to the online dispute and claimed that one of the boys tricked her daughter into coming to meet them by pretending to have a crush on her.
"Gabe [Williams] pretended to have feelings for her. That’s how she was lured," she said. " I still need answers. I’m just left asking why. She just wanted to be in love."
“I don’t blame those boys. I blame evil influence. I don’t hate them, I hate what they did to my baby,” she added.
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