Thursday, October 15, 2009
Teens face charges in juvy court for setting boy on fire
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (WSVN) -- A teenager faced a judge who read serious charges against him for setting another teen on fire.
An audible gasp went up in the juvenile court Tuesday afternoon when the judge announced 15-year-old Jesus Mendez will face second degree murder charges for lighting a teen doused in rubbing alcohol on fire.
Mendez is one of five charged in this act of violence that left 15-year-old Michael Brewer with burns to nearly two thirds of his body. Doctors expect that boy to spend months in the hospital, while the group of his peers sit behind bars for aggravated battery. It will not be determined whether the teens will be charged as adults until a later trial, probably in about a month.
Police said, 15-year-old Denver Jarvis actually splashed Brewer with the alcohol before Mendez used a lighter to set him ablaze Monday afternoon. Police said Brewer jumped into a nearby pool to extinguish the flames.
The suspects also include Steven Shelton and Matthew Bent, both 15, and 13-year-old Jeremy Jarvis, who all stood by and did nothing as Brewer burned. Paramedics later arrived on the scene and airlifted Brewer to Jackson Memorial Hospital.
Parents of the teens would not speak to media outside the courtroom, but Patricia Hollis, the mother of Shelton, did speak outside her house earlier that day. "I just think he was at the wrong place, at the wrong time," she said.
Brewer remains at Jackson Memorial Hospital with second and third degree burns to nearly two thirds of his body. Doctors believe his recovery will take many months. "So far, he's doing about as well as anybody with this size of an injury can do, which is not to say things are great, but they're not nearly as bad as they could be," said Dr. Nicholas Namaias, director of the JMH Burn Center.
Namaias said the injuries Brewer suffered are more than superficial. "Probably more bad days than good," he said, "and we expect to go through a number of organ system failures and infections, and these things are not preventable, despite anything you do. The body was just not intended to be set on fire."
Brewer's family had told police they think these children were motivated by vengeance. 
Brewer's father said Bent, who would later egg on his friends in the attack, had tried to steal his bicycle Sunday night, and Brewer's family called police. "We pressed charges and had the kid arrested," said Valerie Brewer, the victim's mother. "I really think this was a retaliation for having this child arrested." Bent said he wanted to take the bike as re-payment for $40 owed to him by Brewer.
Broward Sheriff Al Lamberti held a news conference that day and said this conflict over petty cash will now leave all involved with serious consequences. "Forty dollars is not worth what the victim is going to experience for the rest of his life or what the kid himself is going to be facing for the rest of his life," the sheriff said, "not over $40. It's not worth it. That's the message we've got to tell them: Walk away."
"Every single day that they sit in a jail or prison is not to make it worse, but for them to have remorse and for them to think about what they did to Michael," said Danny Martinez, one of the victim's friends.
(Copyright 2009 by Sunbeam Television Corp. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
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