ORLANDO, Fla. – Deputies said a 16-year-old girl, who shot and killed her 15-year-old friend and, with the help of another person, dumped her body, will not face any charges.
The Orange County Sheriff's Office announced Thursday that the 16-year-old who was in the vehicle with Melanie Medina, 15, prior to her death and admitted to detectives that she shot her friend will not be charged.
Medina's body was found on the morning of April 11 on Ziegler Road after a passerby noticed her and called 911.
The driver of the vehicle Medina was riding in the night she died, Ramsys Cruz Abreu, 22, remains charged with tampering with evidence, and he may face further charges, according to the Sheriff's Office. Charges of accessory to murder no longer appear on the Orange Clerk of Court's website.
Orange County Sheriff Jerry Demings said Abreu was in that car with Medina and the 16-year-old girl the night of April 10 when the teen shot Medina. Abreu and the girl dumped Medina's body near Ziegler Road, he said.
Demings said when Abreu was arrested, he was trying to abandon a black, four-door Acura with a hole on the right side of the windshield and a black handgun on the front seat.
News 6 found out Thursday that Abreu told investigators he drove to Poincianna after he dumped Medina's body. That's where he said he threw his cellphone into a lake.
Investigators said he told them he tried to clean the blood from the inside of his car, and he also put tape over the bullet holes that were on the outside of his car.
Authorities, who said last week that Medina’s death was a homicide, are now saying it was an accident.
Medina had withdrawn from Corner Lake Middle School four days before her death, Orange County Public Schools officials said. The teen was an eighth-grade student.
Orange County sheriff's spokeswoman Jane Watrel said Medina lived in the northeast portion of Orange County, about 25 miles away from where her body was found.
