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Cops Discover Missing Teen Viciously Murdered at Florida Apartment · Murder Files Unsealed

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Imagine for a second that you are planning to commit
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: a crime. I mean, not just any crime. A tactical
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: premeditated ambush.
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: Right. A highly coordinated attack.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: Exactly. You coordinate the outfits. You secure the weapons. You
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: wear the double layers of gloves so you don't leave
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: a single fingerprint anywhere.
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: You are basically doing everything physically possible to be a ghost.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: Yes, exactly. So you execute this horrific plan and then
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: less than 24 hours later, You just immediately pull out
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: your smartphone and start bragging about the murder in a
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: group chat with your friends.
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: It's the ultimate paradox of the modern criminal, isn't it?
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: It really is.
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: They go to these extreme physical lengths to be invisible,
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: only to just, you know, voluntarily turn on a digital
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: spotlight and point it directly at themselves. Right.
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: I mean, we used to think of the perfect crime
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: like a classic Agatha Christie setup. Totally.
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: The locked room mystery.
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah. A locked room, a vanished weapon, some untraceable mastermind. Yeah. Today,
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: we are looking at a true crime landscape where that
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: locked room is, well, it's made entirely of glass.
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: That is a great way to put it.
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: Welcome to another deep dive. Today, our mission is to
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: unpack a profoundly chilling case from a raw, unedited transcript
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: provided by the Law and Crime Network.
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: And this one is incredibly intense.
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: It really is. I want you to picture the scene.
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: It is mid-October 2021. We are in Broward County, Florida.
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: A high school senior goes missing on a Sunday, which
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: sparks an investigation that ultimately unravels a completely shocking web
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: of teenage betrayal, digital evidence, and just extreme violence.
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: And as we navigate this transcript, the core theme of
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: this deep dive is going to become impossible to ignore.
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: We are looking at how the illusion of secrecy in
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: the modern age inevitably crumbles, whether that is through neighborhood surveillance,
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: digital footprints, or just, you know, the heavy burden of
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: a guilty conscience.
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: The days of the airtight, untraceable crime, especially among digital natives,
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: are effectively over.
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: Absolutely. They just don't exist anymore.
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: Okay, let's unpack this. We have to start with the
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: disappearance itself and specifically what investigators call a baseline of behavior.
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: Yes, the baseline is crucial here.
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: The victim at the center of this tragedy is an
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: 18-year-old named Dwight Grant. Everyone, his friends, his family, they
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: all called him DJ.
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: He was a senior at Miramar High School, right?
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah, a senior. And the source material paints a very specific,
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: consistent picture of DJ's character. According to everyone who knew him,
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: he was a gamer. He was described repeatedly as a
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: good kid.
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: So not someone who was getting into trouble.
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: Not at all. He did not drink, he did not smoke,
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: and he certainly wasn't running the streets at night. But
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: the most crucial detail here, the thing that immediately set
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: off the alarms, is that DJ struggled with anxiety and depression.
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: And we really need to pause on that detail because
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: it dictates the entire trajectory of the first 48 hours
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: of this investigation.
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: I hope so.
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: Well, because of his anxiety, DJ had developed a very strict,
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: highly communicative routine. It was his coping mechanism.
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: Like checking in with people.
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: Exactly. His friends told police that he would call or
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: text them constantly just to check in to see what
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: they were doing. Right.
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: Seeking that reassurance.
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: Yes. And more importantly, he had a regimented, unbreakable pattern
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: of checking in with his mother... Every single morning and
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: every single night.
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: Wow. Okay, so he goes missing on a Sunday. By Monday,
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: his friends aren't just sitting around wondering where he is.
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: No, they're active.
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah, they're actively out on the streets handing out flyers.
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: And by Tuesday morning, because he missed school, the absolute
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: loudest alarm bells are ringing for his family and the
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: police are involved.
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: And that speed is unusual.
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: Right. I want to look at this from a procedural standpoint.
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: Because usually when a teenager goes missing... There's this agonizing
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: buffer period, right?
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: Absolutely. In law enforcement, establishing a baseline of behavior is
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: the critical first step in any missing persons case.
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: So for the listener, a baseline is essentially the established,
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: predictable pattern of a person's everyday life.
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: Precisely. If a teenager has a history of running away
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: or staying out for days without calling or rebelling against
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: their parents, the police might logically assume that's what is
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: happening again.
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: Right, because there's no immediate evidence of a crime.
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: Exactly. So they operate under the assumption that the kid
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: just needed to blow off some steam. It creates this
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: dreadful delay, that whole maybe he just ran away phase.
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: But with DJ, his texts were essentially a digital heartbeat monitor.
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: That's exactly what it was.
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: When the texts stop, it's a flat line. There is
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: absolutely no ambiguity. So from the perspective of a detective,
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: when a parent comes in and says, my son missed
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: his 8 p.m. check-in and he has never done that
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: in his life, Does that immediately upgrade the severity of
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: the response?
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: It undeniably changes the entire calculus of the response. It
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: removes the bureaucratic hesitation that plagues so many missing teens cases.
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah. When that baseline is incredibly strict and the deviation
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: is sudden and absolute, a detective knows instantly they are
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: likely looking at foul play or at least a severe
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: medical emergency.
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: So they aren't looking for a runaway at all?
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: No, not for a second.
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: It narrows the window of the investigation and focuses the
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: resources instantly on his immediate surroundings and his last known contacts.
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: And that immediate realization that DJ wouldn't just vanish of
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: his own accord prompted a very swift, highly localized search.
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: His friends and family didn't think he had hopped a
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: bus to another state.
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: Right. They knew he had to be close. And tragically,
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: that search led right back to his own front door.
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: Or rather, the bushes outside of it. Yeah.
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: It's just horrific.
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: It is Tuesday, October 19th, around 2 p.m. We are
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: in a Miramar neighborhood that residents describe to reporters as
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: extremely peaceful. Families, kids playing, normal suburban life.
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: Just a typical Tuesday afternoon.
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: Exactly. But that peace is totally shattered when a body
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: is found hidden in the landscaping right outside DJ's own
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: apartment complex at Sherman Circle North.
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: The physical location of this discovery is staggering. I mean,
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: this wasn't a remote wooded area or an abandoned industrial
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: park or a swamp. It was the residential landscaping of
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: the victim's own home.
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: And finding him wasn't some stroke of investigative genius either.
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: It was aided by an incredibly gruesome, glaring detail.
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: The blood trail.
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah, there was a literal bloodstained sidewalk leading right to
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: where the body was hidden.
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: It's just unbelievable.
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: When the police arrive on the scene, They don't just
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: rope off the bushes. They have to lock down the
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: entire area, spanning from the apartment stairwell all the way
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: up to the second floor.
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: They start initiating crime scene logs, logging every single person
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: who steps in or out of that tape.
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: They immediately start looking for CCTV footage from the complex's office.
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: And their initial assessment of the victim, who perfectly matches
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: DJ's description, reveals two apparent stab wounds.
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: One to the neck and one to the chest.
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: We really need to break down the profound juxtaposition of
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: this crime scene because it tells us so much about
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: the killers before we even know their names.
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: It absolutely does. On one hand, you have the brutal, up-close,
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: and incredibly personal nature of a stabbing.
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: Right. It's very different from a shooting.
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: Exactly. Stabbing someone, especially in the neck and chest, is
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: not detached. It requires physical proximity, sustained force, and an
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: immense amount of rage or adrenaline. It is intimate, visceral violence.
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: But on the other hand, you have this incredibly sloppy,
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: almost careless disposal of the body.
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: Yeah, leaving a visible blood trail on a public sidewalk
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: in a residential complex in broad daylight, it completely defies logic.
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: It really does. And I want to challenge that a bit.
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: Okay, sure.
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: When you look at a crime scene that's sloppy, a
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: blood trail on a sidewalk in a populated complex, is
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: that sheer arrogance? Like, we are untouchable, we can do
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: this in his own backyard, and no one will catch us.
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: Or is that just complete impulsive panic?
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: Honestly, it is almost always a terrifying mix of both,
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: particularly with juvenile offenders, which, as we'll see, is what
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: we are dealing with here. There is often this inflated
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: sense of grandiosity with teens, the belief that they are
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: smarter than the system. But when the reality of taking
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: a human life actually occurs, the physiological panic sets in.
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: The body just takes over.
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: Exactly. The brain's amygdala completely hijacks the prefrontal cortex. The
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: adrenaline spike causes literal tunnel vision.
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: So they aren't thinking logically at all.
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: Not even a little. They aren't thinking like forensic experts
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: calculating the drip rate of blood on concrete. They're just thinking,
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: get the body out of sight right now. So they
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: drag the victim to the nearest bushes, completely ignoring the
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: massive red flag they're painting on the ground. They only
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: see the concealment of the bushes. They don't see the
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: path they took to get there.
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: That amygdala hijack makes a lot of sense. So... While
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: the detectives are out at Sherman Circle North trying to
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: process this chaotic, bloody scene, setting up their tents, taking
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: photographs of the blood spatter.
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: Doing all the physical forensics.
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: Right. The absolute biggest break in the case is happening
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: miles away. It is literally walking right through the front
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: doors of the Miramar Police Headquarters lobby.
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: Yes. The physical evidence at the scene was vital, of course,
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: but the digital evidence was about to blow the case
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: completely wide open, far faster than any forensic lab could
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: process a DNA swab.
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: So a woman walks into the police station. She is terrified.
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: And she wants to turn over what you might call
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: borrowed evidence.
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: She's carrying a phone, right?
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: Yes. She is carrying her teenage niece's smartphone. She tells
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: the police at the front desk this incredibly frantic story.
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: She says she's been watching the local news, seeing the
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: breaking reports about a body found at Sherman Circle, seeing
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: the pictures of the missing Miramar High student.
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: Just piecing it all together.
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: Exactly. And meanwhile... Her niece's group chat on this phone
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: is absolutely blowing up. A 16-year-old girl in this chat
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: named Jacene is actively claiming to have killed someone.
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: She's not just hinting at it either.
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: No, Jacene isn't. just hinting. She is bragging about it.
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: She's calling it the most traumatizing day of her life
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: and even claiming gang affiliation to sound tough to the
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: other kids in the chat.
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: I want you to imagine the sheer moral weight on
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: that aunt's shoulders in that moment.
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: It must have been agonizing. Truly.
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: Truly. She is sitting in her home, looking at a
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: glowing phone screen and reading the casual, boastful recounting of
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: a teenager ending a human life. It is a profound
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: collision of the digital world and brutal physical reality.
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: In the transcript, you can hear how terrified this aunt is.
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: She is pleading with the officers. She says she feels
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: a moral obligation, quoting the classic, if you see something,
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: say something mantra.
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: But she's also stared for her family.
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: Very scared. She is begging the police to keep her
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: niece anonymous. She doesn't want her niece associated with a
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: murderer or targeted by whatever gang Jacene is claiming to
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: be part of.
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: But she pushes through that fear anyway.
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: She does. She does the right thing and she hands
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: over the phone. And that single action provides the police
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: with three vital names from that group chat. 17-year-old Andre
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: Dexter Clemens, 16-year-old Jacene Smith, and 17-year-old Christy Parisian.
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: It is a remarkable moment of civic duty. It takes
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: immense courage to walk into a police station and implicate
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: people in your own family's social circle.
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: Definitely.
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: But it also highlights something so fundamental about modern investigations,
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: something that defines almost every major case we look at today.
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: Here's where it gets really interesting, especially in the context
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: of the raw transcript we were analyzing. Right in the
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: middle of this dark, intense recounting of a murder and
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: this brave aunt turning over the phones, The original source
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: material actually features a sponsor pivot.
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: Oh, yes. The ad.
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah. It cuts to an advertisement for a service called
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: Delete Me, which is a company that helps scrub your
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: personal information from corporate data brokers to protect your privacy online. Now, obviously,
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: we are just reporting on the source material here. We
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: aren't taking any sides or endorsing the sponsor.
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: Right, but the irony of that ad placement is so
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: thick you could cut it with a knife.
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: Exactly. It is this massive, glaring neon sign pointing right
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: at our murder theme today. The sponsor is talking about
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: the absolute impossibility of keeping secrets today. How these shadowy
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: data brokers harvest our personal info for profit.
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: And right back in the narrative, we see that teenagers
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: don't even need data brokers to harvest their secrets.
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: No, they voluntarily harvest their own guilt by broadcasting it
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: in group chats. The contrast between committing a heinous real-world
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: physical crime and then immediately seeking digital clout or comfort
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: in a group text, it is mind-boggling.
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: If we connect this to the bigger picture, it demonstrates
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: a profound, almost dangerous disconnect that modern teenagers have with
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: the permanence of digital communication.
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: Tell me more about that.
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: Well, put yourself in the mind of a 16-year-old. To them,
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: a text message, a Snapchat, a Discord message It feels
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: like a fleeting whisper in a school hallway.
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: Like it just disappears into the ether.
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: Exactly. It feels temporary, conversational, ephemeral. But to an investigator,
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: to a digital forensics expert, a text message is an ironclad, time-stamped,
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: unretractable confession that lives on a server long after you
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: hit delete.
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: Wow, yeah.
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: Teens view the digital space as their private playground. Failing
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: to realize it is actually the most heavily surveilled, permanently
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: recorded public square in human history.
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: It's exactly like that Agatha Christie scenario we talked about
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: at the beginning. It's as if the killer perfectly executed
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: the murder in the locker room, left no fingerprints, slipped
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: out the window, and then immediately went to the town
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: square with a megaphone to announce who'd done it. Precisely. So,
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: armed with these three specific names from the group chat,
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: the police do not sit around waiting. They don't wait
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: for DNA results. They move immediately to confront these teenagers.
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: Because they have actionable intelligence right now. Exactly.
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: Exactly. And what follows in the transcript is an absolute
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: masterclass in varied police interrogation tactics, specifically focusing on the
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: art of the knock and talk.
• 14:01
  Speaker 2: The knock and talk is a fascinating, highly effective procedural tool.
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: It's exactly what it sounds like. Police literally knock on
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: a door without a warrant and simply ask the occupants
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: to talk.
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: So they don't force their way in?
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: No, it relies entirely on the consent and cooperation of
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: the person answering the door.
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: Okay, so we see two very distinct ways Now, as
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: you said, the police do not have a search warrant yet.
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: A judge hasn't signed off on them entering the home.
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: But they need to ensure that no evidence is destroyed
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: before they can get that warrant. So they legally secure
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: the perimeter by forbidding Christy's mom from going back inside
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: her own home.
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: They freeze the scene. Exactly.
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: Exactly. The mom is remarkably patient. She stands outside. She
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: asks if she can get her phone to call her sister.
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: The police tell her no, she can't go inside, but
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: they retrieve the phone for her. They even listen to
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: a voicemail on her phone while she waits outside.
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: What you were seeing here is a classic procedural chess match.
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: Securing a scene without a warrant by freezing it is
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: a standard maneuver based on the Fourth Amendment concept of
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: exigent circumstances.
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: Exigent circumstances. What exactly does that mean here?
• 15:15
  Speaker 2: It means the police are walking a very fine, very
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: strict legal line. They cannot legally search the house without
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: a warrant. But the courts have ruled they can temporarily
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: prevent anyone from entering if they reasonably believe evidence, like
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: a bloody shirt or a cell phone, might be destroyed, flushed,
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: or wiped.
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: Okay, I see.
• 15:35
  Speaker 2: The mother's compliance here is the key variable. She doesn't
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: fully understand the gravity of the situation yet. She respects authority,
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: so she complies.
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: And then we have the second interaction, which is with
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: 16-year-old Jason Smith and her mother. It is now 11 p.m.
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: at night. Jacene is being spoken to in the back
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: of a police squad car, and her mother is present
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: right there with her.
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: This one is really interesting psychologically.
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: It is. The lead detective uses a very specific calculated
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: tactic here. She assures the mom, and I'm quoting from
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: the transcript, I'm not going to arrest your child. I'm not.
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: But I want to make sure you understand, she doesn't
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: have to stay here.
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: That phrasing is so deliberate.
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: Right. By assuring the mother that Jacene isn't being arrested yet,
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: she completely secures the mother's cooperations. To let you see
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: and keep talking.
• 16:20
  Speaker 2: It is brilliant police work. By playing the, we just
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: want to get her side of the story to clear
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: things up card, the detective keeps the defenses of both
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: the mother and the daughter incredibly low.
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: They just drop their guard.
• 16:33
  Speaker 2: Completely. The mother thinks she is helping her daughter clear
• 16:37
  Speaker 2: up a simple misunderstanding. She operates under the assumption that
• 16:41
  Speaker 2: transparency will save her child.
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: I have to push back on the word brilliant here, though.
• 16:46
  Speaker 2: Oh, why is that?
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: To a listener, putting yourself in that mother's shoes, this
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: feels incredibly manipulative. I mean, you are sitting outside your
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: apartment at 11 p.m. A detective is explicitly telling you
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: your child isn't being arrested.
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: But at the same time, we hear in the audio
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: transcript that a female officer off camera is actually laughing
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: in disbelief as this 16-year-old girl starts casually admitting to
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: being an accomplice to a murder.
• 17:11
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that audio is chilling.
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: At what point does a parent's instinct to cooperate with
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: law enforcement backfire entirely? Where is the ethical or legal
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: line between building rapport and just straight up deception?
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: It's a very fair question, and it's one that defense
• 17:25
  Speaker 2: attorneys argue every single day. The reality is the law
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: allows police a significant amount of leeway to use deception
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: during an interrogation.
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: As long as it doesn't cross into coercion.
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: Exactly. As long as it wouldn't produce a false confession.
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: The tactic backfires for the parent the very second the
• 17:43
  Speaker 2: child moves from being a potential witness. To an active suspect,
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: which in this case happened almost instantly.
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: Parents are culturally conditioned to believe that cooperation with authority
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: equals safety. You know, if you didn't do anything wrong,
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: just tell the truth and it will be fine.
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: That's what we're all taught.
• 17:59
  Speaker 2: Right. But in a criminal investigation, especially one involving a homicide,
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: unrepresented cooperation can be absolutely devastating. You might be wondering,
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: why didn't the mom immediately demand a lawyer?
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: Yeah, why didn't she?
• 18:13
  Speaker 2: It's because the detective expertly maintained the illusion that Jacene
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: was just a helpful bystander right up until Jacene incriminated
• 18:21
  Speaker 2: herself beyond saving.
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: And Jacene certainly does incriminate herself. Believing she can somehow
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: outsmart the police or perhaps just minimize her own role
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: to avoid trouble, she begins to lay out the entire
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: chilling narrative.
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: She just gives it all up.
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: Her narrative brings us to the core of the plot.
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: The mastermind. The lure. and what she repeatedly tries to
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: downplay to the detectives as just a fight.
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: Just a fight, right.
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: According to Jaycene, 17-year-old Andre Clemens is the mastermind behind
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: this entire ambush. And the motive. It is so painfully,
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: frustratingly trivial.
• 18:58
  Speaker 2: It always is with these cases.
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: It was a high school love triangle. DJ had allegedly
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: messed with a girl that Andre knew, and Andre felt slighted.
• 19:05
  Speaker 2: A perceived grievance over a high school romance. It is
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: the exact kind of drama that happens in every single
• 19:12
  Speaker 2: high school in the country, every single day.
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: Every day.
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: It's gossip. It's typical adolescent conflict. But here, the conflict
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: isn't resolved with a shouted argument or a blocked social
• 19:22
  Speaker 2: media account. It is weaponized into lethal violence.
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: Jacene tells police that on Friday, Andre came to her
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: and asked for backup in a fight. Fast forward to Sunday,
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: around 6, 4, 5 p.m. Andre arrives at Jacene's house
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: to get ready for this supposed fight.
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: And he comes prepared.
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: Oh, he gives her a strict dress code. I want
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: to read this list from the transcript because it is
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: absolutely insane.
• 19:45
  Speaker 2: Do I?
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: He tells her they need to wear all black. They
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: need to wear clothes they do not care about getting ruined.
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: They need to wear double layers of gloves on their hands.
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: They need to wear do rags tied tight to cover
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: their eyebrows and any facial hair. And they need to
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: wear masks over their faces.
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: I mean, you do not need a law degree to
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: recognize that this is not the dress code for a
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: schoolyard fistfight.
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: No, not at all.
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: That is the tactical loadout for a premeditated assassination.
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: The double gloves especially.
• 20:11
  Speaker 2: Yes. The double gloves specifically point to a conscious effort
• 20:15
  Speaker 2: to avoid leaving DNA or fingerprints. And covering the eyebrows
• 20:19
  Speaker 2: is a known tactic to avoid leaving trace hair fibers
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: at a scene.
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: Exactly. And yet, Jacene sits in the back of that
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: squad car with her mother right there and tries to
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: claim she thought it was just going to be a
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: normal teenage fight.
• 20:30
  Speaker 2: It's absurd.
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: She says she agreed to go along because she and
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: Andre have a playful sibling type relationship. Let's break down
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: the massive cognitive dissonance happening here.
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: It's huge.
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: It's like buying a parachute, putting on aviation goggles, strapping
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: into a harness, climbing to 10,000 feet, jumping out of
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: a plane, and then telling the police with a completely
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: straight face that you only thought you were going for
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: a scenic hike.
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: The cognitive dissonance is staggering. But it's also a very common,
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: almost desperate defense mechanism. Jezeen is attempting to minimize her
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: culpability while simultaneously and entirely inadvertently giving the police every
• 21:12
  Speaker 2: single element they need.
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: She just hands it to him.
• 21:14
  Speaker 2: She gives them everything they need for a conspiracy and
• 21:17
  Speaker 2: premeditation charge against all three of them.
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: Wait, pause right there. Break this down for me. She
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: is telling the police she thought it was just a fight.
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: If she genuinely believed they were just going to beat
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: him up, How does that legally turn into a premeditated
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: murder charge for her?
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: That's a great question.
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: I mean, if she didn't bring the weapon, how was
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: she on the hook for the murder?
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: That is where we have to explain the felony murder rule.
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: This is a crucial legal concept.
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: Okay, lay it out for us.
• 21:43
  Speaker 2: The felony murder rule essentially states that if you participate
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: in the commission of a dangerous felony, like a robbery,
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: a kidnapping, or in this case, a coordinated aggravated battery,
• 21:55
  Speaker 2: and someone dies during the course of that crime... You
• 21:59
  Speaker 2: are legally liable for the murder.
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: Regardless of who actually did the killing.
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: Exactly. Regardless of whether you pulled the trigger or swung
• 22:06
  Speaker 2: the knife. By detailing the tactical dress code, the double gloves,
• 22:10
  Speaker 2: the specific timeline of the ambush just seen is outlining
• 22:14
  Speaker 2: her active participation in a calculated conspiracy to commit a
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: violent felony.
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: So her claiming it was just a fight doesn't save
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: her at all?
• 22:22
  Speaker 2: Not legally, no. She thinks saying I thought it was
• 22:25
  Speaker 2: just a fight protects her from the murder charge. Legally,
• 22:29
  Speaker 2: it doesn't matter what she claims she thought the ultimate
• 22:32
  Speaker 2: outcome would be. Her actions demonstrate she was a willing
• 22:35
  Speaker 2: participant in the ambush that directly resulted in DJ's death.
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: That makes perfect sense.
• 22:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: So she is burying herself while thinking she's saving herself.
• 22:43
  Speaker 2: Completely.
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: She continues to tell the police about the execution of
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: the plan. They walk in their all-black ninja gear to
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: DJ's apartment complex. Right. 17-year-old Christy Parisian is already there waiting.
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: Her role is critical here.
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: Right. Her job is to act as the lure. She
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: had apparently been seducing DJ digitally, messaging him, playing on
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: his emotions to get him to come downstairs to the
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: stairwell where Andre and Jasine are waiting in the shadows
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: to ambush him.
• 23:09
  Speaker 2: It is cold, it is calculated, and it relies entirely
• 23:12
  Speaker 2: on exploiting DJ's trust, his predictable baseline routine, and perhaps
• 23:17
  Speaker 2: his loneliness.
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's the heartbreaking part.
• 23:19
  Speaker 2: They knew exactly which buttons to push to draw him
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: out of the safety of his apartment.
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: But Jasine's attempt to paint this as just a schoolyard
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: fight gone wrong... completely falls apart when she is forced
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: to describe the sheer brutality of the ambush. This brings
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: us to the actual confrontation in the stairwell, and what
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: I can only call the elephant in the room.
• 23:40
  Speaker 2: Or, more accurately based on the autopsy, the sword in
• 23:43
  Speaker 2: the room.
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: Right. Let's walk through the confrontation as Jason describes it.
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: Andre approaches DJ in the stairwell. DJ immediately realizes something
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: is terribly wrong. He sees people dressed in all black
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: with covered faces, and he tries to run for it.
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: A completely natural survival instinct.
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: Of course. But Jacene, the girl who claims she was
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: just there as backup for a playful fight, admits to
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: the police that she physically tackled DJ and held his
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: legs down so he couldn't escape.
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: In that single admission, she transitions completely.
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: From a bystander.
• 24:14
  Speaker 2: From a passive bystander to an active participant in restraining
• 24:18
  Speaker 2: the victim. Tying back to the felony murder rule we
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: just discussed, holding the victim down while the primary aggressor
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: attacks is the very definition of acting in concert.
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: Andre is standing over DJ, expressing his rage, telling DJ
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: he has to hurt him for what he allegedly did.
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: And this part of the transcript is just heartbreaking to read.
• 24:36
  Speaker 2: It really is hard to digest.
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: Jason admits that DJ is on the ground, completely subdued,
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: begging for his life. DJ is promising to stay quiet,
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: saying you don't have to do this. I won't say nothing.
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: I haven't seen you guys.
• 24:50
  Speaker 2: It is the ultimate moment of vulnerability. The victim is
• 24:53
  Speaker 2: fully surrendering, offering any concession, making any promise just to survive.
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: And it is met with absolute calculated mercilessness.
• 25:01
  Speaker 2: Is zero empathy.
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: Andre starts punching DJ rapidly. Then Christy, who is keeping
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: watch outside the stairwell, warns them that they need to
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: hurry up because there are cars driving by and kids
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: playing nearby.
• 25:11
  Speaker 2: The urgency sets in. Right.
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: So Andre pulls out a small knife and stabs DJ
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: in the right side of the neck. When DJ doesn't
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: die immediately, Andre stabs him again.
• 25:20
  Speaker 2: Let's dissect the horrific reality of the murder versus Jay-Z's
• 25:24
  Speaker 2: incredibly sterile recounting of it to the detectives.
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: It is very stark.
• 25:29
  Speaker 2: She is describing a scene where a boy is begging
• 25:31
  Speaker 2: for his life, bleeding profusely from a neck wound, while
• 25:34
  Speaker 2: she is actively holding his legs to prevent his escape.
• 25:38
  Speaker 2: And yet, her tone in the audio, as noted by
• 25:41
  Speaker 2: the interrogators, is incredibly detached.
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: Like she's describing a trip to the grocery store.
• 25:45
  Speaker 2: Exactly. She frames her actions as just helping a friend
• 25:49
  Speaker 2: out with a fight. as if holding someone down while
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: they are stabbed in the neck is a normal adolescent favor.
• 25:55
  Speaker 2: It displays a terrifying lack of empathy and a complete
• 25:57
  Speaker 2: detachment from the reality of violence.
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: But here is where Jacene's story hits a massive, undeniable contradiction.
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: She claims Andre used a small pocket knife.
• 26:08
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: But the investigators already know, based on the preliminary autopsy
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: at the scene, that the fatal chest wound wasn't caused
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: by a small knife. It was caused by a sword.
• 26:18
  Speaker 2: Yes, a long sword.
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: When the detective finally presses her on this discrepancy, asking
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: directly about the weapon that caused the massive chest trauma,
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: Jason casually admits, oh yeah, there was a longsword.
• 26:29
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I forgot about the sword.
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: She claims she didn't see it earlier because it was
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: in a bag or tucked into a jacket. I just,
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: I cannot get past the sword. Yeah. How do you
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: walk miles with a teenager who's carrying a longsword and
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: not realize a murder is about to happen?
• 26:42
  Speaker 2: You don't. It is physically impossible to conceal a longsword
• 26:46
  Speaker 2: in a way that goes entirely unnoticed by the person
• 26:49
  Speaker 2: walking right next to you.
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 26:51
  Speaker 2: Especially when you are hyper aware of your surroundings, dressed
• 26:54
  Speaker 2: in tactical gear, looking out for security cameras, and mentally
• 26:58
  Speaker 2: preparing for an ambush.
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: So what does this all mean for her interrogation? It
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: means Jasine is caught in a blatant, desperate lie. She
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: is desperately trying to thread the needle between being a
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: helpful witness who is cooperating with the police... and avoiding
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: a first-degree murder charge herself.
• 27:14
  Speaker 2: She's trying to compartmentalize.
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: Yes, compartmentalizing the most gruesome, undeniable aspect of the premeditated crime,
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: the sword, by claiming complete ignorance.
• 27:25
  Speaker 2: And we have to talk about the choice of weapon itself,
• 27:27
  Speaker 2: because a sword speaks volumes about the psychology of the mastermind, Andre.
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: What does it tell us?
• 27:32
  Speaker 2: A sword is not a typical street weapon. It's not
• 27:35
  Speaker 2: a handgun you buy on the corner, or a kitchen
• 27:37
  Speaker 2: knife grabbed in a moment of passion. It is an
• 27:40
  Speaker 2: instrument of fantasy. of gaming, of anime, or historical warfare.
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: Oh, wow.
• 27:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Bringing a sword to settle a personal dispute suggests
• 27:49
  Speaker 2: a profound detachment from reality. It elevates a petty, trivial
• 27:53
  Speaker 2: grievance into a theatrical execution.
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: It is so dark.
• 27:57
  Speaker 2: Andre wasn't just killing DJ. He was acting out a
• 28:00
  Speaker 2: violent fantasy where he was the main character, the Punisher,
• 28:03
  Speaker 2: dispensing his warped version of justice.
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: That theatricality, that movie-like detachment from reality, doesn't stop with
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: the murder in the stairwell. After the teens drag DJ's
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: body into the bushes, leaving that massive blood trail we
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: talked about earlier, they begin a cleanup operation that borders
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: on the absolute absurd.
• 28:21
  Speaker 2: It really does.
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: They bag up their bloody double gloves and their weapons,
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: and they walk back to the apartment complex where Jazeen lives.
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: And what do they do to destroy the bloody evidence?
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: They decide to start a bonfire.
• 28:32
  Speaker 2: In an open grassy area clearly visible to the balconies
• 28:35
  Speaker 2: of the surrounding residents of the complex.
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: It is mind-blowing. They just committed a covert ambush, and
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: now they find an open patch of grass and light
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: a massive illegal bonfire.
• 28:46
  Speaker 2: And people saw them. Oh, yes.
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: We know exactly how this went down because an eyewitness
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: saw them from her balcony. This witness gave an incredibly detailed,
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: vivid statement to the police. She described a young guy
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: squirting gasoline onto burning cloth from a plastic bottle. And
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: she specifically compared the bottle to those plastic squeeze bottles
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: you see in restaurants for ketchup or mustard.
• 29:10
  Speaker 2: I love that detail. The detail of the ketchup bottle
• 29:12
  Speaker 2: is so specific, so mundane, that it anchors the eyewitness
• 29:15
  Speaker 2: testimony in undeniable reality.
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: It really does.
• 29:18
  Speaker 2: You don't make up a detail like that when you're
• 29:20
  Speaker 2: talking to the police. It provides immense credibility to her
• 29:22
  Speaker 2: entire statement.
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: The witness also specifically notes seeing a, quote, chubby girl
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: with braids pacing back and forth nervously around the fire.
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: This directly matches Jason's description.
• 29:34
  Speaker 2: Perfectly matches it.
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: But it is the psychological observation from this witness that
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: truly gave me chills reading the transcript. The witness told
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: police that while the teens looked traumatized and scared by
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: how big the fire was getting, they also radiated a
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: very distinct dark energy.
• 29:51
  Speaker 2: That stood out to me too.
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: The witness said you could feel they had that energy
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: of the way of thinking like, He deserved it.
• 29:58
  Speaker 2: This raises an important question, perhaps the most important psychological
• 30:01
  Speaker 2: question of this entire deep dive.
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: What's that?
• 30:03
  Speaker 2: How do adolescents construct moral justification for something so heinous?
• 30:08
  Speaker 2: This witness, just watching from a balcony, perfectly diagnosed the
• 30:11
  Speaker 2: core of the teenage perpetrator's mindset.
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: They were scared, but not sorry.
• 30:15
  Speaker 2: Exactly. They were scared because the fire was getting out
• 30:18
  Speaker 2: of control, and they knew they broke the law, but
• 30:20
  Speaker 2: they weren't necessarily remorseful. Why? Because in their warped, insulated groupthink,
• 30:26
  Speaker 2: DJ's perceived slight regarding the girl justified his execution.
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: That groupthink is so dangerous. It is.
• 30:33
  Speaker 2: Through group polarization, they had convinced themselves that they were
• 30:36
  Speaker 2: not murderers, but rather, they were dispensing righteous justice.
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: It's just the bizarre movie-like behavior of it all that
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: gets me. Committing a covert murder in all-black tactical gear,
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: and then immediately lighting a massive bonfire in the middle
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: of a residential courtyard... like it's a scene out of
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: a Lord of the Flies adaptation.
• 30:56
  Speaker 2: It's almost surreal.
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: Of course, the fire alerts a complex security guard, who
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: is notified by the witness. The guard comes over, breaks
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: it up, and gets their names, which completely cements the
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: timeline of their whereabouts for the police. They place themselves
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: at the scene of the fire, burning bloody clothes.
• 31:15
  Speaker 2: It perfectly highlights the vast chasm between their fantasy of
• 31:18
  Speaker 2: being untraceable, elite criminals, And the reality of being impulsive,
• 31:23
  Speaker 2: reckless teenagers.
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 31:25
  Speaker 2: They were simultaneously trying to destroy physical evidence while drawing
• 31:29
  Speaker 2: the maximum amount of attention to themselves.
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: With the eyewitness statements from the bonfire, Jason's self-incriminating confession
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: in the squad car, and the physical evidence of the
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: blood trail all aligning perfectly, the police just need to
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: turn to the final digital nails in the coffin to
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: secure airtight convictions.
• 31:44
  Speaker 2: And they find them very quickly.
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: And, as we discussed at the top of the show
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: with the Delete Me segment, they find those digital nails effortlessly.
• 31:50
  Speaker 2: Because the digital footprint always outlasts the physical cover-up.
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: Police confiscate the teens' phones. Now, I want to talk
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: about how this works, because it completely and utterly shatters Jason's,
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: I thought it was just a fight defense.
• 32:03
  Speaker 2: Let's hear it.
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: They don't just look at what's currently on the screen.
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: They do a full digital extraction. And they recover a
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: text message sent before the crime took place. The text
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: explicitly reads, quote, murder will definitely happen soon.
• 32:17
  Speaker 2: Murder will definitely happen soon. You cannot ask for a clearer,
• 32:21
  Speaker 2: more damning demonstration of premeditation.
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: No, you really can't.
• 32:25
  Speaker 2: It completely obliterates any claim of a crime of passion
• 32:29
  Speaker 2: or a misunderstanding or a fight gone wrong. When forensics
• 32:32
  Speaker 2: plug those phones into a system like Celebrate, they are
• 32:35
  Speaker 2: pulling down the entire history of the device.
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: Even the deleted stuff?
• 32:39
  Speaker 2: Oh, especially the deleted stuff. Even if a teen deletes
• 32:42
  Speaker 2: a message off their screen... It exists in the unallocated
• 32:46
  Speaker 2: space of the phone's memory, it exists on the recipient's phone,
• 32:50
  Speaker 2: and it exists on the service provider's servers. That text
• 32:53
  Speaker 2: was the smoking gun wrapped in a bow.
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: And if the text message wasn't enough to seal their fate,
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: the CCTV footage verifies the rest of the nightmare. Detectives
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: pull cameras from all around the area.
• 33:05
  Speaker 2: What do they see?
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: The cameras capture the teens walking in their coordinated all-black outfits.
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: One camera captures DJ's final moments before the ambush. Another
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: captures the terrifying sight of the teens dragging his body
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: into the bushes. There is absolutely no ambiguity left.
• 33:20
  Speaker 2: Which leads directly to the legal reckoning. And the legal
• 33:23
  Speaker 2: reckoning in this case is as heavy and definitive as
• 33:26
  Speaker 2: the evidence itself.
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: All three teenagers are charged as adults. The severity of
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: the crime, the premeditation, the sheer brutality leaves no room
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: for juvenile leniency.
• 33:35
  Speaker 2: None at all.
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: 16-year-old Justine Smith and 17-year-old Christy Parisian both plead guilty
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: to second-degree murder, tampering with evidence... and conspiracy. They're sentenced
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: to 25 years in prison, followed by 10 years of probation.
• 33:49
  Speaker 2: And what about Andre?
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: 17-year-old Andre Clemens, the mastermind who organized the hit and
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: wielded the sword, pleads guilty to first-degree premeditated murder, tampering,
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: and conspiracy. His sentence, 40 years in prison, followed by
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: lifetime probation.
• 34:04
  Speaker 2: We really have to discuss the immense gravity of charging
• 34:08
  Speaker 2: juveniles as adults. It is a decision that the justice
• 34:11
  Speaker 2: system does not take lightly.
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: Because they're basically still kids, right?
• 34:14
  Speaker 2: Historically, yes, the juvenile system is built on the idea
• 34:18
  Speaker 2: of rehabilitation, the belief that a developing brain can be reformed.
• 34:22
  Speaker 2: But in Florida, the law allows prosecutors to direct file
• 34:25
  Speaker 2: juveniles into the adult system for certain violent felonies.
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: Like premeditated murder.
• 34:30
  Speaker 2: Exactly. The threshold for that is intent and brutality. The
• 34:33
  Speaker 2: combination of the text messages, the elaborate tactical dress code,
• 34:37
  Speaker 2: The use of a medieval sword and the CCTV footage
• 34:39
  Speaker 2: removed any shadow of a doubt about their intent.
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: So they couldn't just be sent to juvenile hall.
• 34:44
  Speaker 2: Not with evidence like that. They planned this with the
• 34:46
  Speaker 2: cold calculation of seasoned killers. The system was forced to
• 34:50
  Speaker 2: treat these children as cold-blooded adults because their actions were
• 34:53
  Speaker 2: entirely indistinguishable from those of cold-blooded adults.
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: The emotional weight of this case, the realization of so
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: many lives destroyed over nothing, is so heavy and suffocating.
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: that the original transcript notes the presiding judge reportedly left
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: the courtroom in tears after handing down the sentences.
• 35:12
  Speaker 2: A judge, someone who sees the absolute worst of humanity
• 35:15
  Speaker 2: day in and day out, someone who is professionally calloused
• 35:18
  Speaker 2: to tragedy, brought to tears. It speaks to the utter
• 35:21
  Speaker 2: profound senselessness of it all.
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: It is the ultimate tragic ripple effect. Four lives ended
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: or irreparably ruined. DJ Grant is dead. A young man
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: who checked in with his mom every day, gone. Andre, Justine,
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: and Christy will spend the best decades of their lives
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: in cages.
• 35:39
  Speaker 2: All over a high school rumor.
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: And all of this over a fleeting, trivial high school
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: grievance about a girl. The judges' tears represent the societal
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: despair at this massive, senseless loss of potential. This is
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: a failure on so many levels.
• 35:55
  Speaker 2: It is a sobering reminder that the modern world leaves
• 35:58
  Speaker 2: an indelible trail. Whether it is a CCTV camera tucked
• 36:02
  Speaker 2: under a stairwell, the data logs of a cell phone tower,
• 36:05
  Speaker 2: the chilling permanence of a text message on a server,
• 36:07
  Speaker 2: or the smoke from a gasoline fire in a residential courtyard,
• 36:11
  Speaker 2: the truth always finds the light.
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: You just can't hide it.
• 36:14
  Speaker 2: No, you can't. The illusion of secrecy, especially for this generation,
• 36:17
  Speaker 2: is just that, an illusion.
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: So as we wrap up this deep dive, I want
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: to recap the core journey we just took. We started
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: with a missing boy whose strict, anxiety-driven routine ironically became
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: the very thing that tipped off his loved ones, preventing
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: his disappearance from going unnoticed.
• 36:32
  Speaker 2: Which is such a poignant detail.
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: That led to an investigation that was cracked wide open,
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: not by brilliant microscopic forensics, but by the perpetrator's own
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: absolute inability to stay quiet, both physically in a courtyard
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: and digitally in a group chat.
• 36:46
  Speaker 2: They constructed a glass room and somehow convinced themselves that
• 36:49
  Speaker 2: no one could see inside.
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: Exactly. Which brings us right back to that Agatha Christie
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: analogy we talked about at the beginning. In the digital age,
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: you don't need a brilliant, eccentric detective to find the
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: invisible thread of genius that solves the puzzle.
• 37:03
  Speaker 2: No, the criminals do the work for you.
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: They really do. The teenagers took the magnifying glass, held
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: it up to their own guilt, and broadcast it online
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: for everyone to see.
• 37:13
  Speaker 2: It's tragic, but it's the reality of the digital footprint.
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: I want to leave you, our listener, with a final
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: provocative thought to mull over. We as a society often
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: dismiss teenage drama as trivial. We look at their arguments,
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: their jealousies in their group chats. as a phase of
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: hyperinflated emotions that they will just grow out of.
• 37:34
  Speaker 2: Right, just kids being kids.
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: Exactly. But when you combine that profound immaturity and emotional
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: volatility with the dark, echoing corners of digital groupthink, and
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: you introduce physical weapons into the mix, how close is
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: any high school dispute from crossing the line into irreversible tragedy?
• 37:51
  Speaker 2: It's a terrifying thought.
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: Look at the teenagers in your own life. Do we
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: truly understand the intensity of the digital worlds they inhabit?
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: and the real-world consequences that are brewing just beneath the surface.
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: Thank you for joining us on this deep dive into
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: the Law and Crime Network's case files. We will see
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: you next time.