ORLANDO, Fla. – Two of the three teens charged in the death of Winter Park High School student Roger Trindade appeared in juvenile court for the first time Thursday.
Simeon Hall, 15, charged with manslaughter, and a 14-year-old boy, charged tampering with a witness, were arrested in Orange County on Wednesday, almost two months after Trindade’s death.
Jesse Sutherland, 15, was charged with manslaughter and arrested in Virginia. The other two teens were arrested in Orange County, police said.
Hall was accompanied by his mother at the Orange County Juvenile Justice Center and was represented by a public defender. The attorney asked the judge to send Sutherland home with his parents and be monitored.
John Sirounis, the attorney for the 14-year-old, asked the judge to allow his client to go home.
Sirounis said the teen’s sister depends on him at home, and pointed out that this was a nonviolent arrest.
"We ask that he be released on pretrial conditions based on the fact that the defendant has never been arrested," Sirounis said.
The Orange County judge denied both release requests for Hall and the 14-year-old and granted a detention extension until Jan. 4.
State Prosecutor Terri Mills-Uvalle noted the sealed affidavit, saying the 14-year-old appeared to initiate the series of events.
"He is the one who basically told another juvenile to squirt (Trinade with) the spray. He then is the one who called a friend who caused the group of kids to then come over to where these two victims were. They surrounded them in a group mentality based on the affidavit," Mills-Uvalle said.
Mills-Uvalle also said, according to the affidavit, Hall was the first to throw a punch.
Jessicca Collazzo said one of the teens, who she wished not to name, was a good friend of her son's.
She said she doesn't devalue the crime but said the charges don't match with the teen's character.
"It is a hefty weight and I do understand that. And again teenagers are teenagers, and we fight and I'm sure deep inside, nobody left their house that night saying I'm going to go and kill somebody," Collazo said.
The three teens were charged after an autopsy determined Trindade, found unconscious near Park Avenue on Oct. 15, died of blunt-force trauma, according to the Winter Park Police Department.