A pair of Florida boys will be tried as adults for the shocking murder of a teen girl they allegedly gunned down and then set on fire after luring her into the woods over an online dispute.
The baby-faced suspects, Gabriel Williams, 16, and Kimahri Blevins, 14, will be treated as adults in the eyes of the law when they go to trial for the murder of 14-year-old Danika Troy, the State Attorney’s Office announced Friday, according to WEAR News.
The teens were indicted the same day on charges of first-degree premeditated murder in the grisly killing.
Both are accused of luring Troy to a walking path in Pace, Fla. — near Pensacola, in the panhandle — where they allegedly shot her dead with multiple gunshots before torching her body on Nov. 30.
She was reported missing by her mother early the next morning, and her corpse was found by a passerby the following day, on Dec. 2 around 11 a.m., investigators said.
Troy’s badly burned body was identified only by the shoes she was wearing and her electric scooter, which she’d ridden to the alleged trap and was found nearby.
The boys were arrested within days and have been held at a juvenile detention center since. They were transferred to the Santa Rosa County Jail to be held without bond after being indicted on Friday.
“This is what major crimes [unit] calls a ground ball,” Sheriff Bob Johnson previously said after the arrest. “The evidence pointed to them immediately. They took them into custody immediately.”
“It’s bad enough that you kill a 14-year-old. You’re 14, you’re 16, you shoot her multiple times, and then you set her on fire,” he said.
Troy’s heartbroken mother, meanwhile, said she is struggling to accept the fact that her daughter is no longer with her.
“I don’t know how I’m holding up, really,” Ashley Troy told The Post Sunday. “Every other day, every new wave of pain and denial of how this could be real — my baby, killed. It’s nothing I ever imagined. My worst nightmare.”
Despite overwhelming support from the community and their church, the mom and the slain girl’s sister have been left reeling as they prepare to celebrate Christmas with one less stocking.
“There’s an emptiness where we were once three and are now just two,” she said.
A motive in the killing remains unclear, but police believe the attack was planned after the three teens had some sort of disagreement over social media in November, with Troy allegedly calling Williams a “worthless and a gang-banger.”
“They have been interviewed, but the motive that we’re getting doesn’t fit the forensics or any facts of the case,” the sheriff said.
Troy’s mother said her daughter had been friends with her alleged killers before the online dispute and claimed one of the boys cruelly tricked her teenager into meeting them by pretending to have a crush on her.
“Gabe [Williams] pretended to have feelings for her. That’s how she was lured,” Ashley Troy told The Post earlier this month. “I still need answers. I’m just left asking why. She just wanted to be in love.”
The mom blamed the influence of “evil” for the heinous killing of her daughter.
“I don’t blame those boys. I blame evil influence. I don’t hate them, I hate what they did to my baby,” she said.
The boys allegedly used a gun stolen from Williams’ mother, though none of the boys’ parents are facing charges as of yet.
Neighbors to the crime scene said they were shocked by what happened.
“It’s always been so quiet here, and it’s getting bad. It’s terrifying, in fact,” neighbor Sue Petrisch told WEAR.
Being tried as adults, Blevins and Williams could face life in prison or death if convicted.
“I pray they get the maximum penalty,” Ashley Troy told The Post Sunday.
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