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Teen Recruited Two Girls to Murder His Classmate · Murder Files Unsealed

0:00
Speaker 1: Picture this. It's mid-October 2021 and you're in Miramar, Florida.
0:05
Speaker 2: Right. South Florida. So it's probably been incredibly hot.
0:09
Speaker 1: Exactly. The blistering summer heat is finally, you know, it's
0:13
Speaker 1: finally breaking. The temperatures are dropping down into the 60s,
0:15
Speaker 1: which for down there is basically freezing.
0:17
Speaker 2: Oh, yeah. Sweater weather for sure.
0:19
Speaker 3: Yeah.
0:20
Speaker 1: And school is just underway. Thanksgiving is just a month away.
0:24
Speaker 1: And the Miramar high school Patriots are gearing up to
0:27
Speaker 1: play their big rivals.
0:28
Speaker 2: The Everglades Gators, right?
0:30
Speaker 1: Yep, Everglades Gators. And this is for homecoming on Friday,
0:33
Speaker 1: October 29th. Energy is electric. But if you look at
0:39
Speaker 1: the bleachers on that Friday night, four students are going
0:42
Speaker 1: to be noticeably absent.
0:44
Speaker 2: Which is really the crux of why we're here today.
0:46
Speaker 3: It is.
0:47
Speaker 1: Because our mission for this deep dive is to examine
0:50
Speaker 1: a truly chilling case. We're using source materials provided by
0:53
Speaker 1: the Law and Crime Network. And we're looking at a
0:55
Speaker 1: brutal murder over a teenage roomer.
0:58
Speaker 2: And it's not just the murder itself that we're examining.
1:01
Speaker 1: No, it's the absolute shocking disconnect between a horrific crime
1:08
Speaker 1: and the perpetrator's complete lack of grasp on reality. That's
1:12
Speaker 1: what we really want you to think about as we
1:13
Speaker 1: go through this.
1:14
Speaker 2: To even begin to understand the sheer tragedy of this crime,
1:17
Speaker 2: you know, you first have to understand the life that
1:19
Speaker 2: was taken.
1:20
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's crucial.
1:22
Speaker 2: Because it was a life full of promise. And it
1:25
Speaker 2: stood in this really stark contrast to the absolute darkness
1:29
Speaker 2: of the people who ended it.
1:30
Speaker 1: Let's talk about him. Dwight Lillel Grant Jr. But everyone
1:34
Speaker 1: just called him DJ.
1:35
Speaker 2: DJ. He was born on September 17th, 2003.
1:39
Speaker 1: And there's this really sweet, specific detail about his birth
1:42
Speaker 1: from the sources. His parents actually didn't do a gender reveal.
1:46
Speaker 2: Oh, really? Yeah. They just waited.
1:48
Speaker 1: Yeah, they waited. But for some reason, they just kind
1:51
Speaker 1: of assumed he was going to be a girl. So
1:54
Speaker 1: most of his early baby clothes, the stuff they had
1:56
Speaker 1: ready at the house, it was all pink.
1:58
Speaker 2: I mean, that's actually kind of a beautiful way to
2:00
Speaker 2: start a life, just instantly breaking expectations right out of
2:04
Speaker 2: the gate.
2:04
Speaker 1: Totally. And as he grew up, his passions evolved in
2:08
Speaker 1: this very relatable, very human way.
2:10
Speaker 2: Like a lot of kids, right?
2:11
Speaker 3: Mm-hmm.
2:12
Speaker 2: He started out obsessed with Thomas the Train.
2:14
Speaker 1: Oh, man, the Thomas phase. Every parent knows the Thomas phase. Exactly.
2:19
Speaker 2: And then he graduates from that into reading the Diary
2:22
Speaker 2: of a Wimpy Kid series.
2:24
Speaker 1: Classic.
2:25
Speaker 2: And by the time he's a teenager, he's into playing lacrosse,
2:27
Speaker 2: he's deep into video games, and he loves Japanese anime.
2:31
Speaker 1: He had a very specific look, too, which I love.
2:33
Speaker 1: He had this trademark lisp when he spoke, and he
2:36
Speaker 1: had a beanie.
2:37
Speaker 2: The beanie.
2:38
Speaker 1: The beanie. He literally never left the house without this
2:41
Speaker 1: beanie on his head.
2:42
Speaker 2: Which just gives you such a clear picture of a quirky,
2:45
Speaker 2: comfortable kid, you know? And personality-wise, he was introverted when
2:49
Speaker 2: he was around strangers, but if you were his friend,
2:51
Speaker 2: he was incredibly jovial.
2:53
Speaker 3: Yeah.
2:54
Speaker 1: His teacher, Dana Hightower, actually called him an old soul,
2:59
Speaker 1: which is high praise from a high school teacher.
3:00
Speaker 2: It really is. She noted that he spoke in these
3:03
Speaker 2: very measured, clearly articulated ways. He didn't just blurt things out.
3:08
Speaker 2: And she said something else really profound about him.
3:10
Speaker 1: What was that?
3:11
Speaker 2: She said he didn't care about your race or your
3:13
Speaker 2: religion or your gender. He was just, quote, All about people.
3:18
Speaker 3: Wow.
3:19
Speaker 1: All about people. And he was a planner, too. He
3:22
Speaker 1: wanted to be a marine biologist.
3:23
Speaker 2: Right. But he didn't just have a dream. He had
3:26
Speaker 2: a very specific, actionable plan to fund his college education
3:30
Speaker 2: without getting buried in expensive student loan debt.
3:33
Speaker 1: Which is incredible for a high schooler to be thinking about.
3:35
Speaker 2: It really is. So when we synthesize all these details,
3:39
Speaker 2: what's fascinating here is explaining why DJ's character makes this
3:42
Speaker 2: crime so baffling. I mean, he was a planner. He
3:45
Speaker 2: was a pacifist, and he was an incredibly inclusive kid.
3:48
Speaker 1: Okay, let's unpack this, because it feels like we're looking
3:51
Speaker 1: at a coming-of-age indie movie about a bright, quirky kid,
3:55
Speaker 1: but then the reel suddenly snaps and switches to a
3:57
Speaker 1: horror film. Like, how does a kid like this end
4:00
Speaker 1: up on the radar of a killer?
4:02
Speaker 2: Well, the irony is that DJ's inclusive nature, you know,
4:05
Speaker 2: his deep connections at school, those are exactly what made
4:08
Speaker 2: his sudden disappearance instantly raise alarm bells.
4:11
Speaker 1: Right. This wasn't a kid who just ran away. Exactly.
4:15
Speaker 2: On Sunday, October 17th, 2021, DJ just doesn't come home.
4:19
Speaker 1: And his mom knows immediately. She doesn't wait. She calls
4:23
Speaker 1: Officer Spando at the Miramar PD right away.
4:25
Speaker 2: She's searching local hospitals. She's printing out flyers and hanging
4:28
Speaker 2: them all around their apartment complex.
4:30
Speaker 1: The panic sets in fast.
4:32
Speaker 2: And the neighbors and his friends, they are stunned. There's
4:34
Speaker 2: a neighbor who goes on record saying that the family are, quote,
4:37
Speaker 2: good people. And they specifically noted that DJ wasn't even
4:40
Speaker 2: on their radar because, in their words, you only see
4:43
Speaker 2: the bad ones.
4:44
Speaker 1: Meaning the kids causing trouble are the ones you notice
4:46
Speaker 1: in an apartment complex.
4:47
Speaker 3: Right.
4:48
Speaker 2: If you're quiet and polite, you blend in. And his
4:50
Speaker 2: friends were just as frantic. One friend revealed to investigators
4:53
Speaker 2: that DJ was really the glue of their friend group.
4:56
Speaker 1: The keystone, holding them all together.
4:57
Speaker 2: Exactly. He had this routine where he would check on everyone,
5:00
Speaker 2: morning and night.
5:02
Speaker 1: Twice a day. That's amazing.
5:03
Speaker 2: Yeah. And one friend in particular who struggled with anxiety
5:06
Speaker 2: and depression, they told police that they knew something was
5:09
Speaker 2: horribly wrong the minute DJ missed his regular check-in.
5:13
Speaker 1: Because that was his baseline. He was reliable. Right.
5:16
Speaker 2: His friend also confirmed something really important for the investigation.
5:19
Speaker 2: DJ didn't even have a girlfriend.
5:21
Speaker 1: So no obvious romantic drama.
5:24
Speaker 2: Right. But just two days later, on October 19th, the
5:27
Speaker 2: search comes to a horrifying end.
5:30
Speaker 1: This is where it just gets so dark. Just two
5:32
Speaker 1: days later, there is a gruesome discovery right there at
5:37
Speaker 1: the apartment complex.
5:38
Speaker 2: It was a massive trail of blood.
5:42
Speaker 1: Right where he lived. And this trail, it led past
5:46
Speaker 1: a tree and went straight into the bushes, hiding under
5:49
Speaker 1: a set of stairs.
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Speaker 2: The scene was so graphic. The amount of blood was
5:53
Speaker 2: so substantial that when the first responders arrived, they actually
5:56
Speaker 2: told the family to go back inside.
5:58
Speaker 1: They wouldn't even let them look.
6:00
Speaker 2: No, it was too graphic.
6:03
Speaker 1: I want you listening to really imagine that for a second.
6:06
Speaker 1: Imagine walking down the stairs of your own apartment complex,
6:08
Speaker 1: a place you walk every single day, and seeing that
6:12
Speaker 1: kind of reality. seeing a trail of blood leading to
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Speaker 1: a loved one. It's just visceral shock.
6:19
Speaker 2: It completely shatters your sense of safety. And the immediate
6:23
Speaker 2: community reaction, you know, the swiftness of the mother's response
6:27
Speaker 2: and the friend's panic, it really highlights how heavily DJ's
6:31
Speaker 2: routine and his kindness anchored all of his relationships.
6:34
Speaker 1: Which brings us to the central question, right? If DJ
6:37
Speaker 1: was so beloved and he was a pacifist and he
6:41
Speaker 1: didn't even have a girlfriend, Who would do this to him?
6:45
Speaker 2: To answer that, we have to look at a deadly,
6:48
Speaker 2: completely unfounded high school rumor.
6:50
Speaker 1: A rumor. It always starts with a rumor.
6:53
Speaker 2: Sadly, yes. This brings us to the mastermind of this
6:56
Speaker 2: whole thing. A 17-year-old named Andre Clemens III.
7:00
Speaker 1: Andre.
7:01
Speaker 2: And his motive. Andre hears this rumor that DJ had
7:05
Speaker 2: sexual relations with Andre's ex-girlfriend, Danielle.
7:09
Speaker 1: But it wasn't true.
7:10
Speaker 2: There's zero evidence it was true. In fact, to show
7:12
Speaker 2: you how disconnected this whole thing was, Christy, who was
7:16
Speaker 2: Andre's girlfriend at the time, she actually mistakenly refers to
7:20
Speaker 2: DJ as Dante while she's recounting this to the police.
7:24
Speaker 1: Wait, she didn't even know his real name?
7:25
Speaker 2: She called him Dante. She recounts this conversation where a
7:28
Speaker 2: friend was talking about DJ, or Dante as she called him,
7:32
Speaker 2: and called him, quote, one of those hoes.
7:35
Speaker 1: So they're just casually gossiping? Yes.
7:37
Speaker 2: But then you look at Andre's text messages from mid-October.
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Speaker 2: He texts, Quote, we have plans for this person. If
7:45
Speaker 2: he made you happy, get used to him not being
7:47
Speaker 2: here anymore.
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Speaker 1: That is terrifyingly direct.
7:52
Speaker 2: And it gets worse. On October 11th, he texts Christy directly.
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Speaker 2: He says, quote, murder will definitely happen soon. It'll be bloody.
8:01
Speaker 2: Help me kill him.
8:02
Speaker 1: He just straight up asks her to help him commit
8:05
Speaker 1: murder via text.
8:07
Speaker 2: And Christy later claims to the police that she thought
8:09
Speaker 2: it was just a jokey thing. Her response to him
8:12
Speaker 2: was literally, sure, cool, I'll help you.
8:15
Speaker 1: Sure, cool, I'll help you. Like he asked her to
8:17
Speaker 1: pick up some fries. Exactly.
8:19
Speaker 2: And the weapon they decide to use? A sword purchased
8:22
Speaker 2: off Amazon.
8:23
Speaker 1: A literal sword.
8:26
Speaker 2: From Amazon. What's fascinating here is the psychology of teenage
8:31
Speaker 2: possessiveness mixed with this weird digital bravado. I mean, the
8:35
Speaker 2: texts read like edgy teenage venting at first, right?
8:38
Speaker 1: Right, like kids trying to sound tough online.
8:40
Speaker 2: But the purchase of an Amazon sword shows a chilling premeditation.
8:46
Speaker 2: It crosses that massive line from fantasy straight into reality.
8:50
Speaker 1: Here's where it gets really interesting. How does a high
8:54
Speaker 1: school rumor escalate straight to premeditated murder? It's like they
8:57
Speaker 1: were treating life and death with the same casualness as
9:00
Speaker 1: planning a trip to the mall.
9:01
Speaker 2: Well, that casualness wasn't just in the planning stages. That
9:04
Speaker 2: was the defining characteristic of the horrific ambush itself.
9:07
Speaker 1: Let's talk about the ambush. Because they brought in another person, right?
9:11
Speaker 3: Yes.
9:12
Speaker 2: The accomplice is a 16-year-old girl named Justine Smith.
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Speaker 1: Justine. And did she have beef with DJ?
9:18
Speaker 2: She didn't even know DJ. Throughout her statements, she refers
9:22
Speaker 2: to him entirely as the boy.
9:24
Speaker 1: Just the boy. The complete dehumanization is staggering. Exactly.
9:29
Speaker 2: So they have this plan. Justine is instructed to wear
9:32
Speaker 2: all black and specifically clothes she doesn't care about. She's
9:36
Speaker 2: told to wear gloves and a do-rag to cover her hair.
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Speaker 1: Like a tactical strike team.
9:41
Speaker 2: Right. And Christy, the current girlfriend, she's the bait.
9:45
Speaker 1: Because DJ doesn't have a girlfriend, so he's probably flattered
9:48
Speaker 1: that someone is paying attention to him.
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Speaker 3: That's exactly the vulnerability they exploit. Christy seduces DJ to
9:54
Speaker 3: get him out of the safety of his apartment. She
9:57
Speaker 3: actually makes out with him, and then when the moment
9:59
Speaker 3: is right.
10:00
Speaker 2: she signals the others.
10:02
Speaker 1: That is so cold. She's kissing him while she knows
10:07
Speaker 1: what's waiting in the dark.
10:09
Speaker 2: It's pure manipulation. So Andre approaches them in the dark,
10:14
Speaker 2: and he announces, quote, yeah, we have a problem.
10:17
Speaker 1: And what does DJ do?
10:20
Speaker 2: Being a pacifist, DJ doesn't fight back. He tries to run,
10:24
Speaker 2: but they push him into the stairwell.
10:26
Speaker 1: The stairwell where the bushes are.
10:28
Speaker 2: Yes. And the details of his final moments are just,
10:31
Speaker 2: they're so hard to process. DJ starts pleading with them.
10:35
Speaker 2: He promises he's not going to tell anyone what they did.
10:38
Speaker 2: He's begging Andre not to do it.
10:40
Speaker 1: He thinks he can reason with them.
10:41
Speaker 2: He tries. But Andre tells him that he has to
10:45
Speaker 2: kill him. And DJ is in so much agony during
10:49
Speaker 2: this attack that he actually starts begging them for a
10:51
Speaker 2: quicker death.
10:52
Speaker 1: Oh, my God.
10:53
Speaker 2: He says, quote, you're going to kill me. Just choke
10:56
Speaker 2: me out or, like, end it. Stab me. Do something.
10:59
Speaker 2: Just do it quicker.
11:01
Speaker 1: Just do it quicker? A teenager begging for a faster
11:04
Speaker 1: death because the pain is too much.
11:06
Speaker 2: While he's begging, Jacene, the 16-year-old, she is physically holding
11:10
Speaker 2: down his arm and his leg.
11:12
Speaker 1: Pinning him down so he can't get away. Right.
11:14
Speaker 2: And Andre uses the largest weapon they brought, which was
11:17
Speaker 2: that Amazon sword. He stands over DJ and he stabs
11:20
Speaker 2: him to death.
11:21
Speaker 1: It's just, it's unfathomable violence over rumor.
11:25
Speaker 2: And then the aftermath is almost as disturbing as the
11:27
Speaker 2: violence itself. Because according to them, they were exhausted from
11:32
Speaker 2: the murder.
11:32
Speaker 1: Exhausted.
11:33
Speaker 2: And they realized they hadn't eaten. So they decide to
11:36
Speaker 2: just shove DJ's body into the bushes to deal with later.
11:38
Speaker 2: And they literally go get food.
11:40
Speaker 1: Wait, they left the body of a kid they just
11:42
Speaker 1: slaughtered in the bushes so they can go get a snack?
11:44
Speaker 3: Yes.
11:45
Speaker 2: The profound attachment here is terrifying. Justine's referral to DJ
11:49
Speaker 2: as the boy and then leaving a body to go
11:53
Speaker 2: get a snack. It highlights a terrifying absence of empathy
11:56
Speaker 2: or even a basic grasp of finality.
11:59
Speaker 1: It's like they think they just completed a level in
12:01
Speaker 1: a video game and now they're taking a pizza break.
12:04
Speaker 1: The sheer terror of a pacifist kid begging for a
12:07
Speaker 1: quicker end. And you contrast that with the attacker's banality
12:11
Speaker 1: of going to eat. It makes my stomach turn.
12:14
Speaker 2: It really is a collapse of basic human morality.
12:17
Speaker 1: But if their actions during the murder were deeply disturbing,
12:20
Speaker 1: their attempt to cover it up a little later was,
12:22
Speaker 1: I mean, it was downright laughable.
12:25
Speaker 2: It really shows how naive they actually were. So they
12:28
Speaker 2: finish eating and they decide they need to burn their
12:31
Speaker 2: bloody clothes to destroy the evidence.
12:33
Speaker 1: Because fire destroys everything, right? Right. That's what you see
12:35
Speaker 1: on TV.
12:36
Speaker 2: Right. But they don't go out to the woods. They
12:39
Speaker 2: do this out in the open, right on the grass
12:42
Speaker 2: of the apartment complex.
12:43
Speaker 1: You mean the complex with security cameras everywhere?
12:46
Speaker 3: Yes.
12:47
Speaker 2: Right in front of the security cameras.
12:49
Speaker 1: That is just.
12:49
Speaker 2: And there was an eyewitness. This witness actually saw them
12:52
Speaker 2: and gave a detailed description. They noted a chubby girl
12:56
Speaker 2: who was pacing back and forth and a guy who
12:58
Speaker 2: was actively throwing gasoline on the fire.
13:00
Speaker 1: Out in the open?
13:01
Speaker 3: Yes.
13:02
Speaker 2: And the witness noted that they quickly walked away to
13:04
Speaker 2: the leasing office side because they felt inherently unsafe. But
13:08
Speaker 2: they also made a very specific observation about the vibe
13:12
Speaker 2: of the group.
13:13
Speaker 1: What was the vibe?
13:15
Speaker 2: The witness said the perpetrators had an energy of, he
13:18
Speaker 2: deserved it.
13:19
Speaker 3: Wow.
13:20
Speaker 1: They really convinced themselves they were the righteous ones here.
13:23
Speaker 3: Yes.
13:24
Speaker 2: The dissonance between watching true crime shows and committing an
13:27
Speaker 2: actual crime is massive. They thought fire equals destroyed evidence,
13:33
Speaker 2: completely ignoring modern surveillance and human witnesses.
13:36
Speaker 1: So what does this all mean?
13:38
Speaker 2: They're acting like criminal masterminds from a 1990s movie, completely
13:42
Speaker 2: ignoring the fact that they are standing, right under modern
13:45
Speaker 2: security cameras in a highly populated apartment complex.
13:48
Speaker 1: It's a false sense of security.
13:51
Speaker 2: And that false sense of security follows them straight into
13:53
Speaker 2: the police precinct.
13:54
Speaker 1: Right, because they do get caught.
13:56
Speaker 2: Very quickly.
13:56
Speaker 1: Very quickly.
13:57
Speaker 2: And that leads us to some of the most baffling
13:59
Speaker 2: interrogation room footage imaginable.
14:02
Speaker 1: Let's start with Jacene, the 16-year-old who held him down.
14:05
Speaker 2: So Jacene is in the interrogation room, and she's incredibly calm.
14:10
Speaker 2: But her mother is in there with her and her
14:12
Speaker 2: mother is beside herself.
14:14
Speaker 1: Like any parent would be.
14:15
Speaker 2: Right. The mother is actually lecturing Jacene and it's this
14:18
Speaker 2: surreal pop culture moment. She yells at her daughter, quote,
14:22
Speaker 2: do you know how much investigation ID I watch? Do
14:24
Speaker 2: you know how much true crime I watch? You can't
14:27
Speaker 2: get away with nothing. There's cameras everywhere.
14:29
Speaker 1: The mom knows.
14:31
Speaker 2: The mom knows. They are on camera. Exactly. But Jacene
14:34
Speaker 2: is just calmly filling in the blanks for the detectives,
14:37
Speaker 2: the blanks that the cameras miss. She's just talking.
14:40
Speaker 1: Just confessing without a care in the world.
14:42
Speaker 2: Pretty much. And then you have Christy, who takes a
14:45
Speaker 2: totally different approach. Christy tries to spin this massive web
14:49
Speaker 2: of lies.
14:50
Speaker 1: Right, the current girlfriend who acted as Bate.
14:52
Speaker 2: She claims to the police that she went down to
14:54
Speaker 2: the stairwell to cheat on Andre with DJ, but then
14:57
Speaker 2: out of nowhere, two random tall masked guys named Coe
15:01
Speaker 2: and Ryan showed up and attacked DJ.
15:04
Speaker 1: Poe and Ryan. Just two random masked ninjas.
15:07
Speaker 2: Basically. And she claims that her back was turned so
15:11
Speaker 2: she didn't see anything. But she says, quote, I could
15:14
Speaker 2: hear the pow pow pow.
15:16
Speaker 1: The pow pow pow.
15:18
Speaker 3: Wow.
15:19
Speaker 2: And her demeanor is what really shocked the detectives. She's
15:22
Speaker 2: sitting in a homicide interrogation and she starts complaining about
15:25
Speaker 2: her phone.
15:27
Speaker 1: Are you Serious?
15:28
Speaker 2: She literally says, quote, my phone doesn't have a boyfriend,
15:31
Speaker 2: can't see my friend at all. And she's laughing when
15:34
Speaker 2: the detectives are asking her serious questions.
15:36
Speaker 1: I just, I express absolute disbelief at that. She's complaining
15:40
Speaker 1: about her cell phone connectivity while sitting in an interrogation
15:43
Speaker 1: room for murder.
15:44
Speaker 2: The detectives were incredibly frustrated. They pushed back hard on her.
15:48
Speaker 2: They told her straight up, you walk to Dante's, you
15:51
Speaker 2: call Dante, you show up with two people, you're going
15:53
Speaker 2: around in circles.
15:54
Speaker 1: They're not buying the Cohen-Ryan story for a second.
15:57
Speaker 2: Not for a second. So they use a classic interrogation technique,
16:01
Speaker 2: the recorder trick.
16:02
Speaker 1: Oh, this is fascinating. Explain how this works.
16:05
Speaker 2: So the detectives agree to move the visible audio recorder
16:09
Speaker 2: outside the room. They make a big show of turning
16:11
Speaker 2: it off and taking it away.
16:12
Speaker 1: Giving her this false sense that she's off the record.
16:15
Speaker 2: Exactly. Christy, thinking she's safe, immediately drops the lie and confesses.
16:19
Speaker 2: But what she doesn't know is that the room has
16:21
Speaker 2: a hidden video and audio camera recording everything.
16:25
Speaker 1: And what does she say on the hidden camera?
16:27
Speaker 2: She describes the murder in chilling detail. She talks about hearing, quote,
16:31
Speaker 2: fishing sounds.
16:33
Speaker 1: Fishing sounds.
16:34
Speaker 3: Yes.
16:34
Speaker 1: Like gutting a fish.
16:35
Speaker 3: Yes.
16:36
Speaker 2: And she mentions a, quote, bigger sound when the knife hit, quote,
16:40
Speaker 2: thicker flesh in DJ's neck.
16:43
Speaker 1: Oh, my God.
16:44
Speaker 2: And she admits that during all of this, she just
16:46
Speaker 2: stood there, quote, frozen while her friends stabbed him.
16:50
Speaker 1: She just watched and listened. But here is the part
16:53
Speaker 1: that just blows my mind. The shocking ignorance of the
16:56
Speaker 1: legal system.
16:57
Speaker 2: Christy actually asks the detectives when, quote, child time is.
17:02
Speaker 1: Child time.
17:03
Speaker 2: She thinks she's going to time out. She literally thought
17:06
Speaker 2: she would be housed in juvenile detention for, in her words, quote,
17:09
Speaker 2: a couple years.
17:10
Speaker 1: For premeditated first degree murder.
17:12
Speaker 2: Yes. And Andre wasn't much better. He texted his girlfriend
17:16
Speaker 2: that he might disappear for, quote, a little bit, but
17:19
Speaker 2: that she didn't have to wait for him.
17:21
Speaker 1: A little bit. If we connect this to the bigger picture,
17:24
Speaker 1: it highlights exactly how these teenagers view the justice system.
17:28
Speaker 2: They treat murder like getting caught skipping school. The mother
17:30
Speaker 2: quoting the ID channel is a surreal moment of pop
17:33
Speaker 2: culture colliding with brutal reality. But the kids themselves are
17:37
Speaker 2: just completely insulated by delusion.
17:39
Speaker 1: Well, the justice system quickly snaps them out of that delusion, right?
17:43
Speaker 1: It brings this heavy, permanent reality crashing down on.
17:46
Speaker 3: All of them.
17:47
Speaker 2: Let's talk about the sentences. Because they were not treated
17:50
Speaker 2: as children. All three of them were charged as adults.
17:53
Speaker 1: No child time.
17:53
Speaker 2: None. They were hit with tampering with evidence and conspiracy charges.
17:57
Speaker 2: Jacene and Christy faced second-degree murder charges.
18:00
Speaker 1: Because they helped facilitate it, even if they didn't hold
18:02
Speaker 1: the sword.
18:02
Speaker 2: Exactly. And Andre Clements III faced first-degree premeditated murder.
18:07
Speaker 1: So they all pled guilty, given the massive amount of evidence.
18:10
Speaker 3: Yes.
18:11
Speaker 2: They all pled guilty. And the sentencing was severe. Christy
18:15
Speaker 2: Parisian and Jacene Smith were both sentenced to 25 years
18:18
Speaker 2: in prison, plus 10 years of probation.
18:20
Speaker 1: 25 years. They'll be middle-aged when they get out.
18:24
Speaker 2: And Andre Clemens III was sentenced to 40 years in prison,
18:27
Speaker 2: followed by a lifetime of probation.
18:29
Speaker 1: 40 years and lifetime probation. His life as a free
18:34
Speaker 1: person is effectively over.
18:36
Speaker 2: And the impact on the victim's family is just devastating.
18:41
Speaker 2: DJ's father, Dwight Sr., spoke about the aftermath. He said
18:44
Speaker 2: he doesn't know if he'll ever come to reality with it.
18:47
Speaker 1: How could you?
18:48
Speaker 2: He called it a painful, quote, roller coaster, where he
18:50
Speaker 2: just questions everything about the world.
18:52
Speaker 1: The sheer senselessness of it all. One life lost, a
18:56
Speaker 1: brilliant kid who wanted to be a marine biologist, multiple
19:00
Speaker 1: families destroyed, all of these teenagers throwing their lives away,
19:04
Speaker 1: and all of her text messages and high school gossip
19:06
Speaker 1: that spiraled out of control.
19:08
Speaker 2: It's an immense ripple effect. Three teenagers threw away their
19:11
Speaker 2: entire futures and ended a bright, beautiful life over an
19:17
Speaker 2: unfounded rumor about a teenage love triangle.
19:20
Speaker 1: It's just a tragedy on every conceivable level. DJ Grant's
19:24
Speaker 1: life was tragically cut short by peers who were entirely
19:28
Speaker 1: detached from the gravity and the permanence of taking a life.
19:32
Speaker 2: Which leaves us with a really difficult question to ponder.
19:35
Speaker 2: You know, when we raise a generation where conflicts are
19:39
Speaker 2: largely mediated through screens and consequences and video games and
19:43
Speaker 2: social media can simply be deleted or reset, how do
19:46
Speaker 2: we bridge that empathy gap?
19:49
Speaker 1: That's the real challenge.
19:50
Speaker 2: How do we ensure they understand the irreversible physical finality
19:54
Speaker 2: of their actions before they cross a line that can
19:57
Speaker 2: never be uncrossed?
19:58
Speaker 1: That is a haunting question and something we all really
20:01
Speaker 1: need to think about as technology becomes even more embedded
20:04
Speaker 1: in how we grow up. Thank you so much for
20:07
Speaker 1: joining us on this deep dive. Keep asking tough questions,
20:10
Speaker 1: keep looking out for each other, and keep seeking out
20:13
Speaker 1: the truth. We'll see you next time.