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Beating Suspects Given More Freedom

Three of the eight accused teens have had house-arrest restrictions eased.


By Suzie Schottelkotte
THE LEDGER

Published: Saturday, May 10, 2008 at 2:32 a.m.
Last Modified: Saturday, May 10, 2008 at 8:41 a.m.

BARTOW | The house arrest restrictions were eased Friday for three of the eight teenagers charged in the March 30 videotaped beating of a 17-year-old girl.

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Each of the eight defendants, including seven juveniles who are being tried as adults, had been restricted to their homes while awaiting trial. Those dates have not been set.

Now Cara Murphy, 16, Zachary Ashley, 17, and Stephen Schumaker, 18, were given more freedom with revised pretrial release provisions.

Chief Assistant State Attorney Chip Thullbery would not comment about why his office agreed to ease the restrictions.

The victim, 17-year-old Victoria Lindsay, was out of town with her family Friday and couldn't be reached for comment.

Melodie Lopez, a Bartow lawyer who is representing Murphy, said the change will allow her client to visit her mother.

"This lifted the house arrest restriction, which said they couldn't leave their homes without the court's permission," she said. "They're already under a $31,000 bond. That should be enough."

Lopez said her client is living outside Polk County with her father and wanted permission to visit her mother in Polk.

"By lifting that restriction, she can do that," she said.

Lopez said she and her client agreed to keep the 7 p.m. curfew in place.

An agreement between prosecutors and Ashley's lawyers allows him to leave his house during the day so he can work and go about his daily affairs, said Bartow defense lawyer Rusty Franklin, who's representing the teen.

"He can't go to school," Franklin said, "so he wants to go to work. The house-arrest condition has been lifted until 7 p.m., when he has to be back home."

A similar agreement was reached on Schumaker's behalf, as well, Thulberry said.

Lawrence Chadband, a Lakeland lawyer representing Schumaker, wasn't available for comment Friday.

Murphy, Schumaker and Ashley each had scheduled court hearings Friday, but those hearings were canceled when their lawyers were able to negotiate revised terms.

The two boys are accused of standing watch outside the Lakeland home in which the six girls are accused of pummeling Lindsay.

The girls claim Lindsay was leaving disparaging comments on the MySpace Internet site.

Others charged in the case are Mercades Nichols, 17, April Cooper, 14, Brittany Mayes, 17, and Brittini Hardcastle, 17, all of Lakeland. An eighth co-defendant, Kayla Hassall, 15, lives in Mulberry.

Each of the defendants faces kidnapping and battery charges, and Nichols, Mayes and Hardcastle also are charged with tampering with a witness, which is a third-degree felony.

[ Suzie Schottelkotte can be reached at suzie.schottelkotte@theledger.com or 863-533-9070. ]


This story appeared in print on page B1

Comments

  1. Inmate6036883 says...
    May 28, 2008 3:09:23 pm

    RE: Read the article

    PHEW! Back home with their responsible, capable, educated, classy, moralistic "parents".

  2. scott@yahoo.com says...
    May 29, 2008 6:15:14 pm

    Three of the 8 teens have a little more freedom but they aren't off the hook. It will be interesting to see what kind of sentences the 8 teens end up with for their varying roles in the assault and battery of Victoria Lindsay. I keep expecting some of these kids to cop pleas but it hasn't happened yet.

  3. executive1 says...
    May 30, 2008 10:06:40 am

    I am confused. The article says that "a similar deal was reached for Schumacher"

    How is that? He got re-arrested while out on bond and is currently in jail on a NO BOND for the violation. His PTR was revoked. So why lift his restriction. DUH HE IS IN JAIL..... Dumb system

    Inmate Name: SCHUMAKER, STEPHEN T
    Booking Number: 2008-011556 Booking Date: 05/13/2008
    Race: W Sex: M DOB: 10/20/1989 Height: 506 Weight: 140

    Location: SOUTH COUNTY BLD A DORM D
    Arresting Agency: POLK COUNTY SHERIFF
    Hold: N Hold for:
    Disposition of Hold:
    DNA Testing: ?

    Charge Number: 1
    Statute: 322.34(2a) NONMOVING TRAFFIC VIOL-DRIVE WHILE LIC SUSP 1ST OFF
    Charge on arrest docket: DWLSR
    Bond Type: Bond Number:
    Purge Number: Purge/Bond Amount: 0.00
    Surety: 0.00 Cash: 0.00 Bond Exp.: NO BOND
    How Released:
    Upgrade/Reduction:

    Charge Number: 2
    Statute: 787.01(2) KIDNAP
    Charge on arrest docket: KIDNAPPING PTR REVOKED A/O 05/14/08
    Bond Type: Bond Number:
    Purge Number: Purge/Bond Amount: 0.00
    Surety: 0.00 Cash: 0.00 Bond Exp.: NO BOND
    How Released:
    Upgrade/Reduction:

    Charge Number: 3
    Statute: 784.03(1a1) BATTERY-TOUCH OR STRIKE
    Charge on arrest docket: BATTERY PTR REVOKED A/O 05/14/08
    Bond Type: Bond Number:
    Purge Number: Purge/Bond Amount: 0.00
    Surety: 0.00 Cash: 0.00 Bond Exp.: NO BOND
    How Released:
    Upgrade/Reduction

  4. Lindsey/Inmate202 says...
    May 30, 2008 2:15:37 pm

    I am curious what each one thinks now about what they did. I have no doubt a few of them will never understand why what they did was so horrific, but hopefully at least a couple of them have been scared straight.

  5. iritscary says...
    June 11, 2008 1:14:35 pm

    Apparently Florida is the place to go if you want to commit a crime. The school teachers are 'too pretty' to go to jail and your teen hoodlums (don't know if their parents were married or not so I can't call them what they really are) are given more freedom than the victim. I live in Georgia where teachers who have sex with underage children go to jail and those who kidnap and torture do too.
    All criminals: Florida is a safe haven.

  6. crush says...
    June 11, 2008 2:41:37 pm

    alright, someone from Georgia is looking down on us now.... How far we have fallen.

  7. smushedpaws says...
    July 15, 2008 8:53:35 am

    Hey, now, *I'm* from Georgia. This is not a STATE issue, or a city vs. rural issue. This is a "teens are desensitized to violence" issue. I was (bizarrely enough for me) into that stupid "Rock of Love" show at first just for the laughability of its absolute idiocy until the violence started. That's when I stopped watching. It was no longer funny.

    What is it about lashing out at other people that's so attractive? It's bad enough when it's one person beating up another (which is why I've always hated boxing - what's the point? How can anyone find two guys beating the crap out of each other entertaining? It's just sick!), but when several people, in this case teen girls, gang up on one person, that's just cowardly! Yeah, you're so tough when you have BACK-UP! That's why she didn't fight back. She could very easily have fought back that fat, cowardly pissant Hardcastle if she'd wanted to, but she KNEW that that would only make things worse and the others would most likely jump in and she'd really get killed. I'm sure she thought that after a few blows, she'd be able to get the heck out of there. Alas, it went on and on and on. Poor kid.

    I hope they all get at least a couple of years in real jail or at least hard-core juvenile where there are much tougher and much more angry gals just waiting to get hold of them. They'll each be isolated, all alone, and they'll see how much fun it is to be ganged up on and have the crap beaten out of them. Then, maybe their attackers will joke about temporarily losing some privileges.

  8. executive1 says...
    July 15, 2008 9:41:44 am

    And you hould get 5 years for digging up an old post. That is necrophillia.

  9. just_an_opinion says...
    July 15, 2008 6:52:47 pm


    Really? What did you do to the group of third graders who plotted, planned and attempted to kill their teacher? ?um, absolutely nothing. They were totally protected by Ga. Law and they had no detention centers for children that age. Send them to FL, we can put ?em in detention centers if you want.

  10. AU WE! says...
    July 16, 2008 8:10:57 am

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