Teen charged as adult in Fla. school bus shooting
Jan 30, 2013, 11:09 PM
MIAMI (AP) – A teen accused of fatally shooting a 13-year-old girl on a school bus while he was showing off his stepfather’s gun was in court Wednesday to face adult charges that include manslaughter with a deadly weapon, according to online court records.
Besides manslaughter, prosecutors last week charged 15-year-old Jordyn Howe with possession of a firearm by a minor and carrying a concealed weapon, Miami-Dade Clerk of Courts records showed. Howe is free on $1,000 bond and is only allowed to leave his home for school, church and meeting his attorney. He had previously faced juvenile charges.
“Upon a review of all the available evidence and interviewing all of the available witnesses, it was determined that charging Jordyn Howe as an adult was the proper course of action,” state attorney spokesman Ed Griffith said in an email.
Howe has pleaded not guilty, and his attorney Gale Lewis said she couldn’t comment on an open pending case.
“Our sympathies go out to the victim’s family of this tragic event,” Lewis said in an email.
According to a Miami-Dade police report, Howe was riding a private school bus the morning of Nov. 20 when he took his stepfather’s handgun from his backpack. The weapon discharged once, hitting Lourdes Guzman-DeJesus. She died at a Miami hospital.
Eight other children, including Guzman-DeJesus’ 7-year-old sister, were on the bus but were not harmed.
The girl attended the charter middle school Palm Glades Preparatory Academy. Her sister went to nearby Summerville Advantage Academy.
Just more than a month after her death, authorities say her father, 34-year-old Armando Alexander Guzman, killed himself.
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