Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Praying Florida Teen Pleads Not Guilty After Parents’ Gruesome Murder

Starting point is 00:00:00 Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. For the first time, since his parents were shot to death, a teenager from Florida appears in court. We understand that there has been a two-count indictment. We do acknowledge that, but we are going to interplease if not guilty. I go through the arraignment of Trevor Lee, that 14-year-old boy, charged with murdering both of his parents. Welcome to Crime Fix. I'm Ann Janette Levy.

Starting point is 00:00:42 Calm, cool, and collected. That's how 14-year-old Trevor Lee appeared when he walked into court as he prepared to enter a plea to charges that he planned to murder his mother and father. Earlier this month, Trevor Lee called 911 from a church in Clay County outside of Jacksonville. The sheriff told me that Trevor confessed to shooting and killing his parents, Dave Lee and Brandy Smith Lee. Trevor did not resist when he was taken into custody.

Starting point is 00:01:11 Now Trevor has entered pleas to two counts of first-degree murder. Before we jump into the case, let's watch exactly how this arraignment unfolded in court on Tuesday. Good morning, Your Honor. Mark Wright and Mary Hickson on behalf of Trevor Lee. We understand that there has been a two-count indictment. We do acknowledge that, but we are going to inter pleas of not guilty and request a pretrial date. I would also ask the court

Starting point is 00:01:38 to consider waiving Mr. Lee's appearance for future pre-trials with the understanding that the court needs his presence that we would have no objection to that. Sure.

Starting point is 00:01:53 Your Honor, based on the indictment dates, beauty trial would run February 10th of next year. And because of the indictment, the guidelines do not apply. The state also filed two motions to compel one for DNA and one for fingerprints. Both have been discussed with the public fingers office. I don't believe they have an objection.

Starting point is 00:02:14 No legal objections to that kind. I have the non-air order to compel Mr. Lee's DNA and federal courts. Mr. Lee? Good morning. Good morning.

Starting point is 00:02:31 Mr. Wright is indicated that in the future he may want to lay your parents or certain court dates. That's up to the end of the side. You should consider his advice on both Mr. Wright and his experience lawyers. You have a right to get all your poor appearances as you want. So if you decide you'd rather come on that when they ask you, just let them know. They'll have you broader. You understand?

Starting point is 00:02:54 Yes, sir. You agree to do that? Yes, sir. Okay. All right, and we'll pass this court date for a pre-trial until September 30th at 9-5. That's fine, Your Honor. Yes, Your Honor, that's the real estate. September 30th, at 9-A.N. will be a crew trial.

Starting point is 00:03:19 Your Honor, Detective Palms is here to get the DNA in green print, so that's for a little of the court. Sure. Thank you. I'll see you in September. I'll see you then. Now, the hearing was brief. It was very procedural. Trevor Lee has pleaded not guilty to those two first-degree murder charges, and that is exactly what she would expect at this point in the case. We're at the beginning. Initially, Trevor was booked into the jail on second-degree murder charges, but now he's charged with first-degree murder. The grand jury returned that indictment, bumping those charges up to first-degree, meaning the grand jurors believe the crime was premeditated. 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. During

Starting point is 00:04:10 the arraignment, the parties tentatively scheduled the teen's trial to begin in February. Until then, there is a chance that Trevor won't attend any pretrial proceedings since his attorneys waived his appearance at all future proceedings. Since the investigation is ongoing, details about the family dynamic remain a complete mystery. It's been reported that investigators are looking into the mental health of the young boy, but his motives are still unclear. So let's stick to what we do know. We know that Trevor and his parents got into an argument the night before the shooting,

Starting point is 00:04:44 and later on, we'll go more into detail about the times that deputies went to the family's home. But first, I want to turn to Dave Aaronberg. He is the former state attorney for Palm Beach. County down in Florida also now a defense attorney so he's been on both sides of the courtroom Dave not guilty plea entered by Trevor Lee not a shock there but your thoughts on you know he just you know he walks into court I mean we're just seeing this big big kid 14 year old kid walking into court entering a not guilty plea and then waving his appearances at his future proceedings I find that somewhat odd only in that he is charged with the most serious crimes you can face in the state of Florida.

Starting point is 00:05:30 You would think maybe they'd want him present for these proceedings. Well, Anjanet, he's clearly listening to his lawyers who have advised him that he does not need to show up himself. And he probably took that as saying, okay, if I don't have to, then I either not. It's very intimidating for someone of that age to walk into a court. Quite frankly, it's intimidating for anyone to walk into a courtroom, especially when you're the defendant. So I'm not super surprised about that. I'm not surprised he pled not guilty. That's what almost every defendant does.

Starting point is 00:06:03 And so we're going to let the process continue. And then it is interesting, as we discussed last time, that this is a first-degree murder case now, not a second-degree, even though death penalty is not available for a juvenile like him. There's a reason crime fix is one of the top-ranked shows on YouTube right now, just like there's a reason. reason why Morgan and Morgan is America's largest injury law firm. They're a firm with more than a thousand attorneys, and that's because they win a lot. Morgan and Morgan has recovered more than $25 billion for more than 500,000 clients. In the last few months, a client in Florida received $12 million after the insurance company offered just $350,000. In Pennsylvania, a client was awarded $26 million. That was 40 times the insurer's $650,000 offer, another.

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Starting point is 00:07:24 This happened on August 4th. He called 911, according to the sheriff, and he says, hey, I shot and killed my parents. He walks to a church, calls 911 and says he killed his parents, call his sister first. She calls 911. I mean, it's such an unusual call that the sheriff actually thought this, or, you know, the dispatchers, I should say, thought this could be a swatting call. that's how unusual this was so there are still so many questions Dave and there's been a lot of secrecy here you know Florida is the sunshine state with really open you know sunshine type laws to keep records open and stuff like that but in this case you know they're holding back

Starting point is 00:08:11 the body cam because of the ongoing investigation a lot of things are being kept under wraps at this point. I mean, they went to the grand jury very quickly in this case. So what do you think is going on behind the scenes? Why so much secrecy? Because there's no reason that Trevor Lee could give, I think would be a justifiable reason as to why he did this. But we have no inkling whatsoever other than there was an argument. Well, it's pretty normal, though, because during an investigation, things are kept under wraps. Grand juries are notoriously secret. You don't want to tip off potential other suspects or witnesses or have them being intimidated by what's being said in the grand jury. So everything needs to be kept under wraps because if you screw

Starting point is 00:09:00 up as a prosecutor, you can expose a defendant to an unfair trial, like where you have the public who knows too much about the case, so you can't get a fair trial. You could have the public who finds out details about the case that forces the trial to move to another jurisdiction, which you don't want. So there are a lot of bad things that can happen if you have loose lips. And that's why prosecutors are going to be keeping this as quiet and as secretive as possible. Florida law is, you're correct. Very generous. When it comes to public records, we have government in the sunshine. But when you have a first-degree murder case, especially when you have someone at this age, juvenile, there are special protections available and the prosecutors are using them.

Starting point is 00:09:46 he's being tried as an adult Trevor Lee is the the state attorney has confirmed that first degree murder charge um you know so so what do you do with this case on the prosecution side i mean obviously you're you're plowing forward you're moving forward you believe this was premeditated we don't know just how much premeditation they believe um was involved but premeditation can sometimes you know only be in an instant or two like it doesn't take a lot of lot of forethought, right? Right. And apparently there was a fight the night before, so he had time to think about it, then he got his parents' gun, and he killed both of them. And we don't know much else beyond that, but apparently there was enough premeditation that they filed the first-degree murder charges. That will allow prosecutors to get a tougher sentence, even though the death penalty is off the table. If it's second-degree murder, you serve 25 years if you're found guilty, And then you're eligible for a parole.

Starting point is 00:10:48 We don't have parole in Florida, so it's called something else, but it's only available for juveniles. And then you get another hearing after that, about 15 years later, I believe on second-degree murder, you get 40 years before you get that hearing in a first-agree murder case. So it is different. Plus, when you go to a grand jury, as the prosecutors did here, because whenever you have a capital case, you have to go through a grand jury.

Starting point is 00:11:12 But here, in a juvenile case, the prosecutors went to the, grand jury, which means that the judge cannot impose juvenile sanctions. The judge must impose adult sanctions. So in Florida, if you have a juvenile tried as an adult, the judge could still impose juvenile sanctions, even though you're an adult court, but not if the prosecutors go to a grand jury first. So these prosecutors are very careful. They're prosecuting him to the highest extent possible, and they have eliminated the safety valve for the defense of getting a juvenile sanction, even if he's found guilty. Does the filing of the first degree murder charge going to the grand jury,

Starting point is 00:11:50 taking all of these, you know, kind of precautions or these different routes that you've just discussed, does that show to you that maybe the prosecution, at least, sees zero defenses to this case? I mean, the defense is going to have to evaluate the evidence and look at this and see what are our defenses here. You know, we've got a kid who allegedly, you know, according to the sheriff, calls 911 and says, I did it and I shot them. They find the parents in the bedroom shot with mom's gun. So does this say to you that these prosecutors are seeing zero defenses to this whatsoever? And they're like, this kid needs to be put away because what he did is just that heinous. It does tell me that the prosecutors have a good faith belief.

Starting point is 00:12:41 They can get a conviction beyond a reasonable doubt for first degree, because it's unethical to seek that charge unless you believe that. And that means, as to your point, Anjanet, that they don't think there's a self-defense claim here. They think that this was premeditated murder, and so this is not a Menendez brother's situation where they have evidence that he was the victim supposedly of sexual violence, sexual abuse, and he acted in self-defense. This looks like, just from the outside, a case where you had an impetuous young person who got mad and decided to act irrationally, took his parents gun, and used it against

Starting point is 00:13:22 them. Perhaps they were sleeping at the time. We don't know by the fact that first-degree murders are charged here tells me that prosecutors believe they can get that conviction beyond a reasonable doubt and self-defense is not viable here. So if you are the defense attorney, I assume you're thinking to yourself, I got to get the discovery. Of course. Of course, you've got to go through all that. You've got to listen to the 911 call. You've got to look at any post. post-Miranda interviews he gave or any statements he made on the body camera footage, we still don't have that footage either. It's not being released at this point in time. I'm assuming you're like, I got to get this kid evaluated mental health-wise. We need a mental

Starting point is 00:14:00 health evaluation. Yeah, absolutely. That's a natural part of it. That's part of the frustrating part about first-degree murder cases is that you have an endless supply of medical experts, especially with a juvenile, you're going to slow this thing down. This thing is not going to be disposed of any time soon. There's going to be a lot of battle experts. They're going to try to perhaps use a diminished capacity defense to try to at least lessen the charge to try to perhaps if it goes to trial, and there's no plea. Maybe they could get sympathetic jurors who say, I don't want this poor kid. Look at him. He looks like a child, although this kid's going to be different because he's so big that they may do jury nullification. That could be a hope for the

Starting point is 00:14:43 defense. You know, the Nicholas Cruz case, and that's the last time I'll mention that guy's name on your program, but he was the mass murderer in Marjorie Stoneman Douglas, the one that killed 17 innocents. And he escaped the death penalty, even though he was eligible for it, because his lawyers dressed him up in this soft sweater with these oversized glasses. They made him look like a child. And I suspect we'll try to do the same thing for this defendant, but it's tougher because this guy is so big for his age that it's going to be tougher to make him look like an infant. So you don't see trial happening in February. It's currently scheduled for February. I do not. I do not. These things get delayed. Unless the defense wants to push speedy, if they want to push the speedy trial, they can get it done early. But it's usually to the benefit of the defense that these things slow down.

Starting point is 00:15:37 Memories fade, the passions of the community cools, witnesses perhaps become unavailable, evidence spoils. There's just a lot of benefits to a delayed trial. And I think that's in the car. Plus, it gives more time for the defense to try to work out a deal with prosecutors. I think they're going to try to get a plea bargain out of this. It'll be up to the prosecution to decide. whether they want to let this guy out of prison before he dies. I don't know what the result's going to be because we don't know all the details in this case yet.

Starting point is 00:16:10 Yeah, still a lot being kept under wraps and we'll be curious to learn what on earth was going on behind closed doors there. Still, no excuse for premeditated murder of your parents. Dave, Aaron Bird, thank you as always. I really appreciate your time. Thank you, I mention it. Now, as I mentioned, there's still so much we don't know about this case. We know the sheriff said that Trevor Lee confessed to shooting and killing his parents and that there had been an argument the night before.

Starting point is 00:16:41 We do know that Clay County deputies went to the home in Middleburg five times since 2021. A dispatch report shows five runs to the house, the first on March 24, 2021, for a threat that someone might be trying to harm themselves. The report shows the call was short about. two and a half minutes, but it took a while for the deputies to get there. The notes show the first deputy arrived at 8.59 p.m. officers were on scene for 49 minutes. In July of 2022, a woman called 911 just before 5.30 a.m. to report a mail was holding her against her will, but there are redactions. So we don't know whether that mail was Brandy Smith's husband,

Starting point is 00:17:22 Dave, or Trevor, or someone else. When officers arrived, the woman told law enforcement, she didn't want them there and to leave because she was leaving. The notes state the man was allegedly withholding her military ID because he didn't want her going to the naval base since he is scared that he will be exposed and that she is going to embarrass both of us. Now, we don't know what the mail 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. In March of 2024, deputies were called to the house twice for a sick person. The caller said a female was having stomach pain and difficulty breathing. The call lasted less than a minute and the event was canceled. The second call came two weeks later

Starting point is 00:18:08 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. That call lasted for less than two minutes, and a deputy was not dispatched to the residence. The note state a female was complaining about stomach pain as well. Then on April 27th of this year, it appears a deputy initiated a follow-up investigation. What that means? We don't know.

Starting point is 00:18:45 The notes don't say. And then on August 4th, Trevor Lee's sister called 911 from her home in California, followed by Trevor calling 911 from a church. Are you there? What are you in? No, I'm all the way in California. Please, I need you to send help. What makes you?

Starting point is 00:19:00 I don't know. I don't know where he's at. I have no idea where he's at. But please, hurry up. I'll just say, I'm in the military. I don't know both of those are on. But they just had a good day. They went to the movies, bro.

Starting point is 00:19:11 They went to the movies. 911. Can I help you? Hello. I'm by the road. I threw my backpack away from me. I'm stripped. I'm waiting for weeks.

Starting point is 00:19:22 What do you mean? You're stripped. I'm looking in my pocket. I, like, I empty my pockets and everything. There's nothing in my pockets. And I'm not, like, on the sidewalk. I'm, like, in the middle part. You're going to be in the parking lot?

Starting point is 00:19:41 No, no, like, in the middle parts. 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 you, before you start praying, tell me exactly where you're at.

Starting point is 00:20:00 Um, if you, if you, 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, uh, if you could pray for me, ma'am. I'll definitely be praying for you, son. Okay, we've asked them not to point in. not to point guns at you.

Starting point is 00:20:26 Okay, they're going to be approaching you any minute. Now, Trevor's next court appearance is scheduled for September 3rd at 9 a.m., but he likely won't be there since he's waived his appearance at future hearings. Maybe by that time we'll get a little more information about what was going on in the Lee home. And that's it for this episode of Crime Fix. I'm Angie Nett Levy. Thanks so much for being with me. I'll see you back here next time.

Starting point is 00:20:54 Thank you.

Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Praying Florida Teen Pleads Not Guilty After Parents’ Gruesome Murder

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