Andre Clements, 17, and his girlfriend had already broken up, but the news that she had slept with another guy at their high school sent him spiraling.
Clements has been accused of brutally beating Dwight “DJ” Grant, 18, in a jealous rage before fatally piercing him in the neck and chest with a sword at the victim’s apartment complex in Miramar, Florida, nearly four years ago.
The situation was horrific enough, but this love triangle had a bizarre twist: Clements allegedly convinced his new girlfriend, Christie Parisienne, then 17, and a third classmate, Jaslyn Smith, to help him take revenge over his ex.
Now, Parisienne’s twisted devotion to her high school boyfriend has cost her 25 years in prison. Both she and Smith, who was then 16, were tried as adults and pleaded guilty to charges of second-degree murder, tampering with evidence, and conspiracy to commit murder before a Broward Circuit Court in Fort Lauderdale. Their 25-year prison sentences will be followed by 10 years of probation.
Clements faces first-degree murder charges, which carries a life sentence in Florida, and is being held without bond while he awaits his trial.
Police said that Parisienne lured Grant to his death with the promise of sex, arranging to meet him in a stairwell of his apartment building on Oct. 17, 2021.
Her boyfriend, Clements, allegedly stood by with a sword, and Smith acted as the lookout while the murder took place. Grant’s dying moments were caught on surveillance video when they happened, but all three perpetrators were off-camera — though police have a still photo of the three entering the complex, dressed in black.
After the murder, they carried Grant’s body and dumped it over a railing 30 feet from his apartment complex, said police.
The girls’ involvement confounded investigators and the public when the story first broke, but their recent testimony, reported on by WSVN, sheds light on the events leading up to the slaying. Still, there are many unanswered questions.
Smith, now 19, spoke at her sentencing and described the attack to the court, saying, “[Andre] struck him plenty of times with his fists and then once with the sword.”
When a prosecutor asked her if Grant was “begging for his life,” she responded, “Yes.”
“At any point, did you try and talk Andre out of this course of action?” asked the prosecutor. Smith replied, “No,” adding that she “didn’t feel it was my place.”
When asked if she was afraid for her safety, she said “yes” and then broke down sobbing.
As for Parisienne, she told the court that she didn’t think Clements was serious when he first texted her his plan, reported the Miami Herald. She pointed to Clements as the mastermind, despite a text exchange obtained by WSVN where she and her boyfriend casually plotted the murder, trying to schedule it around homecoming.
“I would help you, but you becoming a murderer right now isn’t what is needed,” texted Parisienne.
Clements responded, “It’s happening by hoco” (homecoming), to which Parisienne said, “Oh — see, that I can help with.”
“This Sunday or next? You choose,” texted Clements.
Parisienne replied, “This Sunday I have to go to my aunt’s birthday party — unless you’re impatient and I give my mother an excuse to not go.”
The sentencing provided little relief to Grant’s mother, Madge Emile, who raised him as a single mom while putting herself through nursing school, according to a GoFundMe created to help with her son’s funeral expenses.
Emile shared her grief with the court, “I’ll never have a grandchild. All I could think of is that day, the way my son is. I will never see him grow up, how old he would be,” she said via WSVN.
“We always had this tradition that, when we were going to bed, he would say, ‘Good night, Mom.’ I would say, ‘Good night, see you in the morning, I love you.’ I’ll never hear my son say he loves me.”
