News & Politics - Five teenagers arrested in the burning of their fellow classmate

**vc318** · 10-14-2009, 06:26 PM

Deerfield Beach teen set on fire: Five youths arrested in burning of Deerfield Beach teen -- South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com

DEERFIELD BEACH - Relatives of the five boys accused of setting a Deerfield Beach teenager on fire expressed their own shock Wednesday that anyone, let alone their own family members, could be accused of such a horrific crime.

"I know my brothers didn't intentionally try to hurt anyone," said Danielle Jarvis, 19, whose brothers, Denver, 15, and Jeremy, 13, were arrested Monday night. "Now, they're in a real spot. I'm scared for them."

But investigators say the Jarvis brothers were part of a group that surrounded 15-year-old Michael Brewer outside a Deerfield Beach apartment complex, splashed him with rubbing alcohol and lit him ablaze Monday afternoon.

The other three facing aggravated assault charges are: Jesus Mendez, 15, also charged with attempted murder as the boy accused of actually lighting the fire; Steven Shelton, who turns 16 Thursday; and Matthew Bent, 15, accused of directing the attack in retaliation for his arrest Sunday for allegedly trying to steal Brewer's father's custom bicycle.

Danielle Jarvis said her brothers were hanging with a bad crowd in a bad neighborhood, but she never thought any of them were capable of the crime that left Brewer hospitalized with burns over two-thirds of his body.

"My brothers don't go around lighting people on fire," she said. "I don't know what possessed any of those kids to do that."

All five boys were ordered held in a juvenile detention center for 21 days. Their next court appearance is Nov. 2. Prosecutors have not said whether they'll attempt to have them tried as adults.

Shelton's mother, Patricia Hollis, walked out of the courtroom in tears after his first appearance Wednesday morning. She said she didn't want to talk about her son, but earlier she told WFOR-Ch. 4 that her son was not involved in the incident.

"I feel so sorry for [Brewer], I really do. And it's sad. It really is," Hollis said. "My prayers go out to him and his family."

Outside Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami Wednesday, doctors said Brewer faces a long road to recovery. He remains in intensive care and on a ventilator, said Dr. Nicholas Namias, director of the hospital's Burn Center.

"The next step will be an operation to remove burn tissue and replace it with either temporary grafts or to start with grafts from his own body," Namias said.

And he said Brewer's condition will worsen before it improves.

"The easiest days are the first days," he said. He said Brewer's survival and recovery will depend on how well his body responds over the next couple of weeks to the consequences of being burned alive.

Arrest reports show all five suspects are students at Deerfield Beach Middle School, though that is disputed by the attorney representing Denver Jarvis.

At the school Wednesday, students said they were shocked by the violence of the incident, but once that shock wore off, they were not surprised to hear who was accused. The only exception was Jeremy Jarvis, the small-framed, baby-faced wisecracker more likely to get tossed out of a classroom for talking too much than for anything physical.

"He's not a bad kid," said classmate Alicia Cortez, 13, a seventh grader at the school. "His brother, he's really bad. Jeremy's pretty funny."

Jonathan Skalaranko, 13, said rumors were racing through the school Monday after Bent was arrested for trying to steal Brewer's bicycle. When word spread Tuesday about the attack, Skalaranko said he couldn't believe it.

"I was just shocked," he said. "I thought they were lying."

Students said Brewer was originally friends with the other boys, but that had recently changed. The Broward Sheriff's Office said that was because Bent accused Brewer of failing to repay $40 he had borrowed to buy a video game. The attempted bicycle theft was an attempt to collect on that debt, the Sheriff's Office said, but Brewer called 911.

That got him labeled a snitch, the word used to taunt Brewer during the attack at the Lime Tree Apartments on the 400 block of Southeast 13th Court. None of the teens tried to help Brewer once the fire started, according to the arrest reports. Mendez, accused of setting the blaze, also got a taste of the pain Brewer felt when his arm was scorched.

Brewer jumped into a nearby pool to put out the flames, sparing the worst damage to his hands and face, doctors said.

At Deerfield Beach Middle, classmates put up posters asking for donations to help pay Brewer's medical expenses. Buckets were passed in classrooms to take up collections.

According to court records, the father of the Jarvis children also faced trouble over setting a fire decades ago. Archived Broward court records show that back in 1984 when Denver Colorado Jarvis Sr. was 20, he ignited and threw a Molotov cocktail into a neighbor's Pompano Beach yard.

He eventually pleaded guilty and was sentenced to two years of probation. A formal felony conviction was withheld from his criminal record.

That poor, poor boy. I hope justice is served and these five boys get locked up for life.

**NikNak** · 10-14-2009, 06:41 PM

Oh dear lord.

That is just terrible.

**vc318** · 10-14-2009, 06:45 PM

It really is. And the worst part is that these knuckleheads could only laugh about what they did as they were being arrested. You must be a really cruel person to laugh about trying to kill someone.

**sunnykerr** · 10-14-2009, 07:41 PM

Or something is really wrong, psychologically and emotionally with those kids.

Either way, they're about to get the wake-up call to end all wake-up calls. I'm not really one to put little kids in with the adults, because (let's face it) they'll either get physically ripped apart or they'll get even more messed up in the head.

**vc318** · 10-15-2009, 12:06 PM

^ I really hope this boy pulls through. As for those teens, I hope they serve some serious time for what they did.

**NikNak** · 10-15-2009, 09:24 PM

I hope he's okay too.

**sunnykerr** · 10-26-2009, 06:39 PM

I hope they're all okay, when everything is said and done.

**vc318** · 11-10-2009, 07:53 PM

The burning of Michael Brewer: Three face adult attempted murder charges, two others released -- South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com

No bond for three teens charged as adults in Deerfield Beach burning case

The three teenagers accused of setting fire to Michael Brewer last month were denied bail this morning after being charged as adults.

Jesus Mendez, 16, Matthew Bent, 15, and Denver Jarvis, 15, are charged with second-degree attempted murder.

If convicted, they could be imprisoned for up to 15 years.

Brewer, 15, remains in critical condition at the Jackson Memorial Hospital Burn Center in Miami, recovering from second- and third-degree burns over two-thirds of his body. Relatives said this afternoon that he was taken off a ventilator and is breathing on his own for the first time since his hospitalization.

Brewer's parents, hospital officials said, have rarely left his side since the Oct. 12 incident at the Limetree Village Apartments in Deerfield Beach.

The State Attorney's Office filed formal adult charges Monday afternoon against the three boys, who are being held at the Broward County Main Jail.

Prosecutors declined to file any charges against Jeremy Jarvis, 13, and Steven Shelton, 16, who were accused in their initial arrests of being "part of the group" that surrounded Brewer.

"This is a very active, ongoing investigation," said lead prosecutor Maria Schneider. "As additional information becomes available, then we have the option to revisit our filing decision."

Stephen Melnick, the attorney for Jeremy Jarvis, has said from the beginning of the case that his client was minimally involved in the assault on Brewer.

"The main thing right now is that we all wish Michael Brewer a speedy and full recovery," he said.

Couldn't be happier with the news. What a bunch of animals.

**sunnykerr** · 11-11-2009, 06:47 PM

It's good news that he (Michael Brewer) is off the ventilator. It shows progress, which is a great thing.

It beggars the mind that 15-year-olds can be tried as adults. Their brain aren't fully formed yet and there's a chance that their awful, awful decisions will land them alongside rapists, murderers and pedophiles... I can't imagine living out the rest of my life in consequence of the decisions I made at that age. Granted, I never made such horrible decisions, but I can't help thinking "there but for the grace of God"...

**vc318** · 11-15-2009, 12:18 AM

I think they were fully aware of their actions. I mean, you must not care a whole lot about the life of a person to just laugh it off like it's the biggest joke in the world. If anything, only one of the teens has actually shown remorse for what he did to this kid. Thanks to these monsters, Michael's life will never be the same. The best part about this is that none of the students from the school were the least bit surprised that these boys could do such a thing because they were quite troublesome in class. That's quite sad. Maybe if someone like the parents were involved in the lives of these teens, then we wouldn't even be talking about this horrific event.

**sunnykerr** · 11-16-2009, 09:15 PM

Oh, I'm not at all arguing that they weren't aware of their actions. Or that their actions are in any way, shape or form acceptable. Not in the least.

I have all these arguments I want to make about the teenage brain being a literal work in progress, where the amygdala overrules any shot the frontal lobe might have had of imposing rational thinking on a decision like that because myelin simply hasn't finished connecting the right synapses yet. I mean, there are reasons why, with a very minuscule amount of exceptions, schizophrenia only really develops in late adolescence to early adulthood.

And I even did the research to back my arguments up.

It's not that what they did is okay. Or that they lacked the sight, smell and other senses to be fully aware of what they were doing.

My only issue is that there must be a reason there are two justice systems - one for adults and one for youths. And I believed that it was because we recognized that teenage kids, especially ones surrounded by peers, are simply not mature enough to make common sense decisions.

Which in no way diminishes the severity of their crime or the fact that they should have to face the full consequences of their actions.

So what happens now? They're guilty. Do we send them to adult prisons, where they'll live alongside murderers and rapists? The only way that's okay is if we accept that a 15-year-old is somehow capable of being a fully formed adult.

And, if that's the case, then we need to revisit our laws on the age of sexual consent, the drinking age, the voting age... and so on.

**strawberrypie** · 11-17-2009, 10:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sunnykerr (View Post)

I have all these arguments I want to make about the teenage brain being a literal work in progress, where the amygdala overrules any shot the frontal lobe might have had of imposing rational thinking on a decision like that because myelin simply hasn't finished connecting the right synapses yet. I mean, there are reasons why, with a very minuscule amount of exceptions, schizophrenia only really develops in late adolescence to early adulthood.

I don't know much about this subject so I'm just trying to understand. What you're saying is that they just couldn't stop themselves?

**sunnykerr** · 11-17-2009, 12:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by strawberrypie (View Post)

I don't know much about this subject so I'm just trying to understand. What you're saying is that they just couldn't stop themselves?

There's one thing I want to make absolutely clear before I attempt to answer this question: I am in no way an expert on the topic. I just did some research on it.

What I gather, from what I found, is that it's not so much that they literally couldn't physically stop themselves but that their ability to do so cannot be compared to that of an adult.

You know that saying "the bigger the group, the lower the IQ"? Or maybe that's just an expression in French. Anyway, the point is that the teenage brain (inasmuch as we can generalize on the topic) is not fully equipped to make thought-out decisions. The amygdala (the "gut reaction" and fear centre of the brain) is still incredibly dominant. The decision-making part of the brain, the frontal cortex, is the last one to mature and the last one to receive myelin, which is what connects it to other parts of the brain, such as the ones where speech, physical, emotional and gut reactions emanate from.

Obviously, this is a grievous act. And I believe that these kids are responsible for their own actions (though I would seriously like to see their parents investigated as well) and should suffer the harsh consequences thereof.

I'm simply saying that their brains do not function the same way that an adult one would. And so, to me, holding them to the same standard of legal culpability runs completely counter to the principles of having two separate judicial systems or to the principles that one must be a certain before they can vote, drive, drink or have the ability to consent to sex.

I believe these kids need to be punished. I'm just saying that they're not adults.

**vc318** · 11-18-2009, 10:46 AM

Quote:

I believe these kids need to be punished. I'm just saying that they're not adults.

And that's where we need to make improvements. Yes, they should serve some time in jail for this but with that comes some serious counseling. I think both jailed teens and adults could benefit from that but it seems to go ignored.

**sunnykerr** · 11-18-2009, 07:54 PM

Is there something between the prison system and the juvy system?

I only ask because I agree that something like prison would be called for, I would worry that putting 15- and 16-year-olds with adult prisoners would essentially lead to massive rape of the younger criminals.

And, you know, I think they need serious counselling, so I don't think being repeatedly help would be conducive to any breakthroughs in that department.