A Florida teenager indicted for murder in connection with the slaying of his grandmother allegedly told police he stabbed his relative “too many” times “to count” on the night of her death. The young man will be charged as an adult for the crime but will not face the death penalty.
On Tuesday, Oct. 4, a Brevard County grand jury indicted Jaylin Christian on charges of premeditated murder in the first degree in the fatal stabbing of Muriel Emerson, his 57-year-old grandmother, on Wednesday, Sept. 7. The grand jury heard testimony from several agencies working on the case, including a Brevard County Sheriff’s Office Crime scene investigator, Brevard Medical Examiner, and a Rockledge Police detective, before locking in on an indictment.
Each helped put together a formidable case to charge the teen.
According to a press release by the State Attorney (18th Judicial Circuit Brevard and Seminole County), the sheriff’s office sent a text message to the 911 dispatch line directing them toward the area of 600 Clearlake Road in Cocoa, Florida.
Upon arrival at the location, two deputies found the 16-year-old, who told them he had stabbed Emerson in their home on South Carolina Ave, west of Fiske Boulevard, in Rockledge, Florida, about five miles away.
The Brevard County Sheriff’s office contacted the Rockledge Police Department and sent them to check on the woman, the release continued. Once inside, they found the older woman dead.
A police report, according to the CBS affiliate WKMG, says that Emerson was killed in her kitchen and that officers found her body wrapped in a blanket, surrounded by a pool of blood.
Law & Crime quoted Rockledge Police Chief Joseph LaSata, who said, “The city experienced a heinous crime. It was calculated. It was brutal.”
The medical examiner ruled her death a “homicide due to multiple sharp force injuries,” and the teen was later charged with the killing.
Christian was arrested near a gas station in Cocoa, after officers found him sitting on the ground, allegedly with cuts on one of his hands and blood stains on his shirt. When they began to speak to him about the killing, he told them he didn’t know how many times he stabbed his grandmother.
The police report says he responded, “Too many to count.”
An investigation found trouble was looming over the day for that household.
Earlier in the day, he did not go to school and contacted 911 to tell them he had run away. Police located him and brought him to the station. They called his grandmother, whom he had been staying with for less than a month, and she came and picked him up, taking him back to their home.
Within hours he killed her.
The teen told the cops that he had been having homicidal thoughts, which prompted him to grab the knife from the kitchen. Then he went to his grandmother’s office, ClickOrlando reports, but Emerson tried to run. He stabbed her until the first knife broke. After the weapon was no longer useful, he went and got another knife and continued the attack.
LaSata described the weapons as “large knives.”
In an arrest affidavit, Christian told the officers he backed up some belongings, stole some of the grandmother’s money, and her briefcase, and then snapped a picture of her corpse before wrapping her in the blanket. When he was done covering her body, he left — only to contact authorities to confess to them what had transpired.
Two days later, on Friday, Sept. 9, Judge Christina Serrano ordered Christian to be held in “secure juvenile custody,” where he remained until the indictment.
Christian has now been indicted as an adult, and his case has been formally transferred from the juvenile court system to the circuit court. The teen will be “transferred to the Brevard County Jail where he will be held on No Bond.”
The young man entered a not guilty plea, according to court records.
He will remain in the jail’s custody until his trial. His next court date is slated for Wednesday, Nov. 16.
While he will be tried as an adult, the prosecutor will not be seeking the death penalty in this case.
