SUMTER COUNTY, Fla. – A 70-year-old man and two boys were arrested Friday in connection with the shooting death late last year of a Sumter County 15-year-old, according to the sheriff’s office.
That teen, Jontae Haywood, was reported Dec. 16, 2022, to the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office as a missing juvenile, later found dead the next evening near County Road 557 in Bushnell, deputies said.
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Haywood was a former student at Sumter P.R.E.P Academy in Wildwood, according to the sheriff’s office.
Investigators determined his death was a homicide, stating Friday multiple people were responsible.
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Those individuals were identified as 15-year-old Tervaris Eugene Jackson, Jr., of Bushnell, 17-year-old Trevon Donte Battle, of Leesburg, and 70-year-old Bradford Nethercot, of Bushnell, according to the sheriff’s office.
The incident involved the negligent handling of a firearm that discharged and killed Haywood as Nethercot, the only adult present, made no attempt to prevent the teen’s death, deputies said.
Haywood’s body was then moved in an attempt to prevent its discovery, a release states.
Sumter detectives obtained warrants for all three subjects on Friday, securing Jackson and Nethercot with their own deputies and seeing Battle arrested by the Lake County Sheriff’s Office, according to the release.
Jackson and Battle face charges of aggravated manslaughter, improper disposal of human remains, possession of a firearm by a person under 18 and failure to report a death to the medical examiner.
Nethercot faces charges of child neglect resulting in great bodily harm, possession of fewer than 20 grams of marijuana, two counts of possession of drug paraphernalia and three counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor, deputies said.
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