Friday, February 20, 2009

Suspects tell police they didn’t intend to kill teen

This is a follow up on the earlier post about the young man getting beaten to death, now these ass wipes wsay they were just having some fun. We will see how much fun they have when they get to Huntsville.

Five teens accused of taking turns beating another teen to death said they never meant to kill, and as one put it, “we were just trying to have some fun,” Baytown police said Thursday.

While investigators continued piecing together what motivated the vicious attack on 18-year-old Kevin Jerome Powell at a Baytown apartment complex, state District Judge Herb Ritchie found Thursday that authorities had enough probable cause to continue holding the suspects in jail on $100,000 bail each.

Vandalism of one suspect’s car may have triggered the attack, police said.

Baytown Lt. Eric Freed said the five beat Powell with their fists and feet and used a steel barbecue lid and the butt of a pistol. Freed declined to identify which of the teens described the attack as “fun.”

Four of the suspects are from La Porte: Marcus Jason, 18, a Dewalt Alternative School student; Joshua Ashford, 17, a La Porte High School student; Charles Merritt, 18, a La Porte High School student; and Joshua Rider, 19.

The other suspect, Cedric Fears, 17, is a High Point High School student from Baytown.

The Harris County medical examiner has ruled that Powell’s death was a homicide caused by “blunt force head injuries.”

Powell’s mother, Ruthie, said she had never known the teens accused of “taking my only child away.” Police, however, say her son and the suspects were casually acquainted.

She said she couldn’t fathom why anyone would want to harm her son, whom she described as “playful and loving.”

“I’m disabled. I have had several surgeries because of medical problems. My son took care of me,” she said, crying during a telephone interview. “He’s been like my savior. He got my medicine and food, made up my bed. He’s done this since he was 10 years old.”

She is waiting for authorities to complete their investigation so she can learn how this could happen.

“I should not be burying my baby. It should be me,” she said.

Shots fired that night
Outlining what occurred late Sunday night, Freed said the five suspects were evicted from a party in a house near the Tompkins Green Apartments in Baytown where a few hours later Powell would be found dead in the parking lot.

Freed said shots were fired as partygoers said they didn’t want anyone from La Porte attending.

The teens left and went to visit a friend at an apartment complex adjacent to Tompkins Green, Freed said. While they were there, someone bashed out the windows in Ashford’s Buick.

“Three of our suspects said they saw a group hanging around the car that did it, and one was Powell,” Freed said. “But the other two said they didn’t see anything.”

Freed said police have not located anyone else who witnessed the vandalism and cannot prove that Powell was involved.

Wrong place, wrong time
“He had no reason to do that. He was looking forward to graduating from high school in May and joining the military,” Jermaine said.

“He did not want to succumb to the streets.”

Sphere: Related Content