Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Florida Teen Accused of Murdering Parents Hit with New Bombshell Charges

Episode Date: August 14, 2025

Trevor Lee, 14, called 911 from a church and told the dispatcher he killed his parents, according to the Clay County Sheriff. Now, the State Attorney has charged Trevor as an adult and the grand jury has returned an indictment on an enhanced murder charge. An incident report states Trevor shot Dave Lee and Brandi Smith Lee several times in their bedroom. Law&Crime's Angenette Levy looks at the new developments in this episode of Crime Fix — a daily show covering the biggest stories in crime.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: Get 20% OFF @honeylove by going to https://honeylove.com/CRIMEFIX! #honeylovepodHost:Angenette Levy  https://twitter.com/Angenette5Guest:Dave Aronberg  https://x.com/aronbergProducer:Jordan ChaconCRIME FIX PRODUCTION:Head of Social Media, YouTube - Bobby SzokeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinVideo Editing - Daniel CamachoGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondry Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. Do you, Perth? Yes, sir. Go ahead, I'll listen to you. A 14-year-old boy faces new charges in the murders of his parents after the sheriff said he called 911 and confessed. I look at the new information we're learning about the case of Trevor Lee out of Florida. Welcome to Crime Fix.

I'm Ann Jeanette Levy. A 14-year-old boy should be focused on homework, summer break, and in Trevor Lee's case, football. But instead, this teenager, he's in jail facing murder charges for the deaths of his parents. I first told you about Trevor Lee last week when he shockingly called 911 from a church and told a 911 call taker that he shot his parents. according to the sheriff in Clay County, Florida, just outside of Jacksonville. At that time, Trevor was booked into the jail on second-degree murder charges, but now the grand jury has returned an indictment,

and those charges have been bumped up to first-degree murder. That's the most serious charge you can face in the state of Florida. The indictment states that the murders of Dave Lee and Brandy Smith were premeditated by Trevor. If Trevor is convicted, he could spend the rest of his life behind bars. Though under Florida law, his case must be reviewed after 25 years because of his age. And Dave Ehrenberg, the former state attorney for Palm Beach County in Florida, he's going to join me here soon to talk about this turn of events. This case, it really makes you wonder what was going on here. We've seen children charged as adults before in Florida, but the information available so far in this case has proved that this case,

is really mind-boggling. A child murdering both of his parents over what? Possibly an argument? An incident report says that Clay County deputies found Dave Lee and Brandy Smith with multiple gunshot wounds in their bedroom. Now, we recently obtained copies of CAD records and notes from Clay County's Sheriff's Office that are shedding some light on five other calls to the Lee family home since 2021. The first call was on March 24, 2021 for a threat.

that someone might be trying to hurt themselves. The report shows the duration of the call was short, just about two and a half minutes, but the response time took a while. The notes indicate the first deputy arrived at 8.59 p.m. Officers remained on scene for 49 minutes. Then in 2022, there was a call for a disturbance. The notes state that on July 8th at 526 a.m., a woman called 911 to report that a male was holding her against her will.

But there are some redactions, so we don't know whether the male was Dave or Trevor. When the deputies arrived at the home, less than three minutes later, after the call was placed, the female told law enforcement she did not want them there and to leave because she was heading out. The notes indicate the mail was allegedly withholding her military ID because he didn't want her going to the naval base since he was, quote, scared that he will be exposed and that she is going to embarrass both of us. Now, we don't know what that male meant by being exposed. We could assume this was Dave Lee saying this. In that instance, the deputy was at the home for just 15 minutes.

On March 21st, 2024, deputies were called to the house twice for a sick person. The caller said a female was having stomach pain and difficulty breathing. Time stamps on the report show the call lasted less than a minute and the event was canceled. The second call came two weeks later on April 5th, around 11 a.m. The caller was heard saying, hello and oh my God, before the call was disconnected. Less than a minute later, dispatch called back, and the caller said a male was having nonstop, stomach, and chest pains, with pain radiating into both of his arms. The report indicated the call lasted for less than two minutes. This time again, no deputy was dispatched to the residence.

According to the notes, a female was complaining about stomach pain. Then on April 27th of this year, it appears a deputy initiated a follow-up investigation. Then came the call from Trevor Lee's sister, reporting the shooting early in the morning on August 4th. Are you there? What are you going to help? No, I'm all the way in California. Please, I need you to send help. I don't know.

I don't know where you get. I have no idea where you're at. But please, hurry up. As a breaking news reporter, I would. live a really active lifestyle. Whether I'm running in and out of the courthouse or chasing down interviews, it's really important that I find a way to be comfortable while also looking professional and polished. For comfort and style together, there's no better place to look than Honey Love's shapewear and bras. Honey Love's bras are made with a specially designed bonding

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Now, after your purchase, they ask you where you heard about them. So please support our show and tell them that we sent you. Experience the new standard and bras and shapewear with Honeylove. Now, I spoke with Clay County Sheriff Michelle Cook about the call and the arrest. You know, what's interesting is after he shot his parents, he walked over a mile, about a mile and a half to a church. where and we believe during that time that he was walking to the churches when he called her. And then when he got to the church is when he called our 911 communication center.

Do we have an idea? I mean, that's, you know, another kind of strange thing about this. Do we know why he decided to walk to the church? I mean, I can kind of connect a dot and think that he called his sister to tell her what he did. And she likely told him to call law enforcement. That's where I'm going in my head with us. that, but why walk to the church? Well, where his house is in relation to the church, even though it was probably close to

a mile and a half walked, it was a pretty direct line. This church sits up on a major road and is easily discernible as you're walking. And I'm thinking, like you, that his sister just encouraged him to call 911, and he probably felt that, you know, walking up to the church and waiting for deputies to arrive was probably the safest place for him to do that. So he walks to the church and he calls 911. Your call takers or the 911 center call takers, I'm assuming, you know, they're dispatching. They're trying to get information from him. They're talking to him. What can we glean from this whole thing about how, why this unfolded the way that it did? You know, interestingly enough, we've had,

quite a few swatting calls in our community over the past couple of years. So initially, when the call came in, there was some concern with our communication center that this was going to be another swatting call. So our communication center kept him on the line for quite a while as deputies responded to the house and surrounded the house and then attempted to make contact with the documents inside the house. And based upon the information that our communication center was being given, the deputy, made the determination to go ahead and make entry into the home to do the what we call a protective sweep where the deputies found the the the two deceased parents and then the uh the our com center are dispatched at a fantastic job keeping him on the phone and talking to him and within just a couple of minutes we were able to put eyes on him at the church you know and in this point we don't know if he was still armed so the deputy that had eyes on him waited for a couple of

a backup deputies to get there, and then they came up with a plan and took him into custody. He came into custody peacefully. He did not, you know, push back at all. He was, in fact, extremely cooperative with the deputies who took him into custody at the scene at the church and then also with the detectives later on in the evening who were interviewing him. Now, just to be clear, Trevor Lee's sister in California called 911, but he also called 911 from the church. So Sheriff Cook said that Trevor confessed to shooting both of his parents with his mom's gun and then waited a short time, called his sister, and then walked to the church.

His sister actually called 911 before he did. I'll just say, I'm in the military. I don't know. Both of the goes on. Mother just had a good day. They went to the movies, girl. They went to the movies. Now, the older sister told the 911 call taker that they had a good day and had gone

to the movies. Then Trevor Lee called 911 from the Cross Point Church early Monday morning. And a lot of these calls, they're redacted because in Florida, if a person makes admissions to a crime, they're redacted from the public record until the case concludes. 911, how can I help you? Hello. I'm by the road. I threw my backpack away from me. I'm stripped.

I'm waiting for leave. What do you mean? You're scared. I'm nothing in my pocket. I, like, I empty my pockets and everything. There's nothing in my phone. pockets and I'm not like on the side lock I'm like in the middle part you're going to be in the parking lot no no like in the middle part of what if the church

I'm going to pray first I need to pray you need to pray yes ma'am okay why before you start praying tell me exactly where you're at. If you're driving towards the church, like, I'm right out in front of the church, is a big cloth. Do you pray? Yes, sir. Go ahead.

I'll listen to you. Well, I was going to ask, if, you could pray for me, ma'am. I'll definitely be praying for you, son. Okay, we've asked them not to point against you. Okay, they're going to be approaching you any minute. So to talk about this new indictment of 14-year-old Trevor Lee, this is still kind of boggling my mind, I want to bring in Dave Aaronberg. He was the state attorney in Palm Beach County for many years, and he's had to make decisions about charging teenagers as adults. So, Dave, thanks for coming back on to discuss this. When we last talked about this case, Trevor Lee was charged with second-degree murder. Now they've bumped that up to first-degree murder, and you didn't think that would happen. So what's your response to that? It means that investigators and prosecutors must have determined that there was premeditation here,

Angenet. And you don't need a lot of premeditation. There's an old saying, all you need to do in the real world, if you're thinking about killing an aunt, is to think about just for a couple seconds and then step on the ant. That would be enough for premeditation. So if they had a fight, and then Trevor Lee grabbed or had to search for the parents' gun and then killed his parents. Yeah, that would be enough premeditation. I was just surprised because he's a juvenile, 14 years old, he's not eligible for the death penalty. So when you normally charge someone with first-degree murder, you get a grand jury indictment, a capital crime, and then that person is eligible for the ultimate punishment.

But here he's not. And so he's eligible for life in prison, which he could also get. in a second-degree murder case. So that's why I was a little surprised by it. But at the same time, in Florida, if you seek a grand jury indictment for a juvenile, which apparently is what happened here, then the court is limited and cannot impose juvenile sanctions. The court must impose adult sanctions. And so that's why perhaps the prosecutors did this. And that's what's so interesting to me because this is a juvenile. And so he is not eligible for the death penalty. And it sounds like a lot of a lot of what we're getting the records from the sheriff's office is a lot of

it's redacted. And they're not releasing the body camera footage, which in Florida to me is like kind of wild because in Florida, I feel like everything goes for the most part. You know, the sunshine state has really good sunshine laws. And usually you can get a hold of everything. And they're They're not releasing the body camera footage right now, citing some Florida statutes. So that was surprising to me. But you've got a kid, a 14-year-old, who is now charged with the premeditated murder of his mom and dad. And then he walks to a church and calls 911. We don't know what he said because of the laws in Florida.

It's redacted what he actually said, the admission, and says, I killed my parents. he's like praying with a 911 call taker. I mean, I'm just kind of like, what is going on here? Well, they've got the confession. And I don't think that is going to be an issue at trial, whether he's the one who actually did it. Perhaps they'll try to go to state of mind and perhaps they'll try to negotiate this into some settlement in advance of trial. But there are some exceptions to the public records rules for ongoing and current investigations. I would also think that due to the age of the defendant, that that is probably used as a way to hold on to these body cameras and other evidence longer than you could in an adult case.

Florida, you're right, has a very broad public record law, but it's only as broad as courts allow it to be. And so that would take the media to sue and to try to get this stuff. So we'll see what happens here. But yes, this is not your typical murder case. It involves a 14-year-old. involves fortunate girl who otherwise seemed to be a good kid and murdered his parents and then walked to a church and asked the 911 operator to pray with him. And she said that she would pray

with him. And she said that she spoke to the officers and they will not come with her guns drawn. So she did him a solid in that way. And there was no incident. And now we're left to try to figure out what happens next. And the first big surprise in the case is the indictment for first degree murder. And that's what's so surprising to me, you know, because he can't be indicted or he can't be, they can't seek the death penalty against him because he is a juvenile. So that is what's so shocking to me about this and the fact that they charged him with first degree murder. If you're the prosecutor in this case, given what we know, and there's a lot we still don't know, Dave, there's a lot we still don't know about what he said happened. and if he made an admission on the 911 calls and then he goes and makes an admission in the interview room

and maybe he said some stuff too that that maybe they tripped him up a little bit we don't know what he said but it sounds like too these people the mom and dad brandy and Dave I mean they were killed in the bedroom multiple gunshot wounds maybe they were killed in their sleep too so these are potentially I mean

we don't have a self-defense claim here possibly we have possibly you know just defenseless people in bed you know being killed that's what it sounds like happened well the menendez brothers wanted a self-defense claim when they murdered their parents and the parents backs were turned to them while the parents were eating ice cream in front of the tv so they claim years of sexual abuse so i don't know if he's going to go there with this we don't know all the details yet right but But the word is that he got the gun that was owned by the parents and used it against them after they had a fight. Well, how long after the fight?

Was it after the parents went to sleep and Trevor Lee had a chance to stew over it? That would be premeditation, clearly. So maybe that's what happened. Maybe the parents went to bed and the defendant decided to kill them while they were sleeping. They're not the most courageous act in the world, nothing that's going to go well with a jury, quite frankly, no matter his age, if it does get to a jury. And so that's why we still have a lot of unknowns here, Anjanet, and the fact that the prosecutors did seeking an indictment of first-degree murder when the penalty would really be the same as if he was convicted

of secondary murder, not fully the same, but both could lead to life in prison, tells you that there's probably more evidence that we know right now. Yeah. And, you know, you can stew about something But there's also a cooling off period, too, where cooler heads are supposed to possibly prevail. And now, and we do have 14-year-olds who aren't fully developed, Dave. We all know, you know, you've been in this game a long time. The kids, their brains, especially the boys, aren't fully developed at that age. So we'll probably see something like that being brought up, too, during this whole case by the defense, I would assume. Yes.

If it does go to trial, that's where they would go here because there's not a question of who committed the murders, but they can get into his mental state. They can use his youth to try to get him maybe a lesser conviction or some sort of escape from the conviction entirely. Keep in mind, one of the reasons why they went for first degree murder was that when a juvenile is charged with murder, if they're convicted, if they're charged with first degree murder and convicted of that, although they can't get the death penalty, they can get life in prison, it would get life, but they'd also be eligible for a review after 40 years. So they come up for a review. There is no parole in Florida, but if you're a juvenile, you do get the opportunity for what's equivalent to parole after 40 years. And then again, after 25 years after that. But if you charge them with the secondary murder charge, which is what I thought they were going to do, then the review is after 25 years, not 40 years, and then the next review is a shorter period after that. So there is a little bit. So there is a a benefit for prosecutors in going for first-degree murder then second-degree murder, even though

the death penalty is off the table. Well, it will be really interesting to see how this pans out. And I mean, it's a tragic case. We still don't know what was going on in that house. But I think as the case progresses through the courts, we will find out. We just know there were a lot of police calls, at least five in the last couple of years, to the house the exact nature. We're still kind of trying to learn exactly what those were about. Dave Ehrenberg, thank you so much for joining me. I appreciate it as always. Thank you, Antoinette.

Now, keep in mind, a lot of the records that we referred to were redacted, and the body-worn camera in this case is actually being withheld at this time because of the ongoing investigation. Trevor Lee is due in court next week for his arraignment on those first-degree murder charges. At that time, he will enter a plea that will most likely be a not-guilty plea. And that's it for this episode of Crime Fix. I'm Janette Levy.

Thanks so much for being with me. I'll see you back here next time.