By Jamal Thalji, Times Staff Writer
Friday, November 5, 2010
Jennifer Mee's mother, Rachel Robidoux, gets emotional when the judge denied bond and uttered the words "death penalty or life in prison."
LARGO — Jennifer Ann Mee, the 19-year-old "Hiccup Girl," will stay in the Pinellas County jail pending her trial for first-degree murder, a judge ruled Friday morning.
Defense attorney John Trevena sought to have the court set bail for Mee, whose unrelenting case of the hiccups at the age of 15 brought her fame in 2007. She was later diagnosed with Tourette's syndrome.
Those charged with first-degree murder are usually held without bail pending trial. But on Tuesday, her attorney argued that the judge should set a reasonable bail —- $50,000 — that her family could afford. Her parents pledged to watch her 24/7 in their Spring Hill home and ensure that she attends every court hearing.
But Pinellas County Judge Donald E. Horrox denied the defense motion. He said the fact that Mee has lived as a transient since turning 18, moving from motel to motel, made her a flight risk. He also said there was enough evidence against Mee to keep her in jail.
"Her admissions to the detective was that she was in fact involved in this felony murder, and that it was her intent for a robbery to occur for money," the judge said. "If those admissions were to be introduced at trial for a jury, those alone would be sufficient for her to be convicted of the offense."
Mee and two others are charged in the Oct. 23 death of Shannon Griffin, a 22-year-old transplant from Mississippi who relatives said was getting his life on track after Hurricane Katrina devastated the family farm in 2005.
Police said Mee lured 22-year-old Griffin so he could be robbed by co-defendants Lamont Antonio Newton, 22, and Laron Cordale Raiford, 20.
Griffin thought he was going on a date when he pulled his scooter up to an empty house at 511 Seventh St., police said, and Mee led him to the back where the other two were waiting.
But Griffin resisted, and police said he ended up being shot and killed with a .38-caliber revolver. He was shot three times in the chest and once in the shoulder as the six-shot revolver was emptied and then left behind at the crime scene.
All three have been charged with first-degree murder under Florida's felony murder statute. Because Griffin died in the commission of an alleged felony — in this case, armed robbery —- all three can be charged with his murder.
First-degree murder is punishable by life in prison without the possibility of parole or the death penalty.
Police have yet to say who pulled the trigger, but don't believe it was Mee. That was part of Trevena's argument that his client should be freed from jail because her role in the crime was hazy.
But a detective testified Tuesday that she admitted her part in the plot, that the trio targeted Griffin because they needed money.
Trevena and his client's parents also told the judge Tuesday about all of Mee's struggles since her brief time as a subject of media scrutiny.
"She suffers from a variety of physical and mental health infirmities," Trevena told the judge Tuesday.
According to the defendant's mother, Rachel Robidoux, and stepfather, Chris Robidoux, Mee dropped out of school in the 10th grade, struggles with basic literacy, may function at a much younger mental level and has lived as a transient since turning 18. She also still suffers occasional bouts of the hiccups.
Robidoux also said that fame did her daughter no favors, exposing her to a bad crowd which easily led her astray. Mee fell into two abusive relationships, the family said, and was preyed upon because of her Social Security disability payments..
Her last boyfriend was co-defendant Lamont Newton, who the mother said verbally abused Mee. Mee's other boyfriend was Reginald Lee Jr., but earlier this year he was locked up in the Pinellas County jail on charges that he choked and robbed a woman.
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