Florida authorities have arrested a 16-year-old white suspect in connection with the killing of a Black teenage girl who was shot during an attempted robbery and left for dead on the side of a road near her home in Cape Coral.
Thomas Roy Stein, a resident of the neighboring community of North Fort Myers, faces aggravated murder charges in the March 17 shooting death of 15-year-old Kayla Rincon-Miller.
Stein made his first appearance before a judge on March 20 and was ordered to be held without bond.
He was due back in court for his arraignment on April 8.
Police are continuing a manhunt for several suspects who allegedly accompanied Stein, while investigators said they believe the crime was not a random act.
Meanwhile, family and friends said they are devastated and struggling to come to terms with Kayla’s tragic slaying.
“[I’m] honestly not good at all. I’ve been crying all day every time I think of her,” Bailee Powell told WBBH-TV, the local NBC affiliate in Fort Myers. “It’s not real. I’m in denial right now. She’s just literally my best friend since I can’t even imagine. We went everywhere together, football games, track meet, Sunsplash.”
The outgoing young girl was enjoying her spring break and hanging out with friends, as she often did when she was tragically killed.
Moments before the fatal encounter, Kayla and her two friends had left a movie theater on foot and were walking to a nearby McDonald’s around 9:30 p.m. when an SUV rolled up suddenly and blinded them with the high beams.
Several suspects jumped out on the shoulder of the road demanding money and valuables, investigators said.
During the scuffle, one of the individuals opened fire, hitting Kayla in the chest.
The shooting happened near the intersection of Southeast 20th Street and Southeast 16th Place, where a witness reported hearing three gunshots in the night.
“It should strike a nerve that a young, vibrant 15-year-old girl was shot dead in the street,” Cape Coral Police Chief Anthony Sizemore said.
Someone in the area also called 911 to report the shooting.
The suspects fled before law enforcement arrived, while emergency crews were not able to save Kayla, and she was later pronounced dead at a local hospital.
The two surviving victims were uninjured and told authorities they could not identify the gunman.
Initially, law enforcement had few clues to work with, and no solid leads developed immediately.
A day after the shooting, forensics investigators with the Cape Coral Police Department combed through the crime scene with the help of a K9 from the Lee County Sheriff’s Office, and detectives placed at least five evidence markers on the ground, reports said.
Three days later, police located the suspect vehicle — a silver Nissan Pathfinder, which was traced back to Stein’s mother, and the suspected gunman was taken into custody.
Police refused to say whether Stein’s parents would also face charges as their son, an unsupervised minor, was accused of a deadly armed robbery.
The Cape Coral Police Department is asking for the public’s help to identify the other suspects and has offered a $3,000 cash reward if a tip leads to an arrest.
“Our detectives know there are others involved in this homicide, and there is still more work to be done,” Cape Coral police said in a news release, according to the Fort Myers News-Press. “Cape Coral Police Department detectives’ diligent work around the clock continues today to narrow this investigation.”
Relatives of the slain girl have set up a GoFundMe that has so far raised more than $17,000 for Kayla’s funeral.
In a statement on the website, family members said they were “mourning the loss of this beautiful soul.”
Several of Kayla’s friends spoke to news outlets, including Elyse De Jesus who expressed grief over the loss of one of her best friends.
“She was like my passenger princess, like she was always in my car,” De Jesus told reporters. “I would like go get my hair done and we would just sit there, wherever, or sometimes the gas station, not even buy anything. You need God. What if it was your best friend or your sister?”
Kayla was born on May 20, 2008, and was just two months shy of her 16th birthday when she was gunned down.
One of the girl’s cousins, Sophia Ricketts, told local news station Fox 4 that she was shocked and saddened by Kayla’s death, as she used to babysit the girl when she was younger.
“It didn’t seem real, and it still doesn’t seem real,” Ricketts said to the outlet. “Baby, princess, Kayla … I mean this is devastating.”
Throughout her life, the “vibrant” young girl “brought joy and light into the lives of her parents, Luz and Winston,” her family wrote.
