Law&Crime Sidebar - 'Horrific Crime': 7 Arrested in AZ Teen's Beating Death at Halloween Party

Episode Date: March 16, 2024

Preston Lord, 16, died from severe brain injuries in October after allegedly being chased down and attacked by multiple people. The Maricopa County District Attorney’s Office believes a cheap gold chain may have been the catalyst for the assault. Law&Crime’s Jesse Weber speaks with local activists about their mission to bring awareness to teen violence.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: If you’ve suffered an injury and need legal support click www.attorneytom.com/Sidebar for a FREE consultation or dial 855-TOM-WINS.HOST:Jesse Weber: https://twitter.com/jessecordweberLAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokeVideo Editing - Michael DeiningerScript Writing & Producing - Savannah WilliamsonGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinSTAY 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.

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The loss of a child is unimaginable for most of us, but to live it is a whole new level of horror. Multiple suspects, including minors, are indicted on murder charges after a teenager is killed. It's a major update that Preston Lord's family has been waiting for for months. We sit down with members of Project Lilly, an anti-teen violence advocacy group

following the case and the push to use Preston's untimely death as a way to do good in the community. Welcome to Sidebar, presented by Law and Crime. I'm Jesse Weber. We now have a stunning seven people indicted in the murder of a 16-year-old Arizona boy. this coming months after he was killed following a Halloween party. Now, of those seven, four are adults, three are minors being charged as adults in Maricopa, Maricopa County. They're all facing various counts of first-degree murder, alternatively second-degree murder, as well as kidnapping and aggravated robbery. But to get a better sense of this, we have to go back. We have to start with October 30th, 2023, and that is when 16-year-old Preston Lord died in the hospital.

After apparently being attacked by multiple people outside of a party in Queen Creek, Arizona, two days prior, reportedly found in a roadway at almost 10 p.m. We're talking traumatic brain injuries. Now, while the ME, the medical examiner, has ruled this as a homicide. A cause of death has not been officially released. Here's actually Rachel Mitchell, the Maricopa County attorney, talking a little bit more about this. Since then, too many people have complained that nothing was happening. and the family heard that. To you, I say directly, you could not have been more wrong.

From the night of the incident, the Queen Creek Police Department has spent hundreds of hours piecing together an extremely complex case that involved dozens of potential players, either suspects, witnesses, or other individuals with knowledge. Likewise, my team has invested hundreds of hours, logging and reviewing evidence. You've heard me say before that the police reports numbered in the thousands of pages

and that there were more than 600 pieces of video evidence that my prosecutors watched over and over and over. So you can get a sense of the breadth of this investigation and why it took so long. The county attorney's office says that it was actually the theft of an inexpensive gold chain, allegedly only worth around $10, that allegedly set all of. of this in motion. Preston and his friends allegedly tried to get back that necklace that was taken and a fight breaks out. Preston and his friends ran away, but the attackers allegedly chased them down the street. And according to prosecutors, after the killing, the suspects worked together to try to destroy evidence. Talon Vigil, Tristan Billy, Dominic Turner, Taylor

Sherman, William Hines, Talon Renner, and Jacob Nisner of all being held on a $1 million are bond. They've all been charged in this case. And now there have been reports, although it is unconfirmed, let me make that clear, unconfirmed, that some of the suspects may have ties to a gang known as the Gilbert Goons. This gang had reportedly carried out multiple attacks against teenagers in the past year or so in Gilbert, Arizona and other suburbs of Phoenix. But again, to be clear, the association between these suspects and this alleged gang is unconfirmed. Police and prosecutors say, though, that this is just the beginning and that there could be more rest as the investigation continues.

To talk more about this, I want to bring in three special guests. I'm joined by Ann Doucette, Chris Brennan, and Angela Rogers. They are from Project Lilly. This is an organization whose goal is to dismantle this unfortunate cycle that we see of teen-on-teen violence across this country. I want to thank all of you for coming on. I think the most appropriate place to start is, was this started in response to the Preston Lord case?

Was this organization started because of that? We actually started at the waterfield. We did an ALA post calling out ALA for letting Tall and Runner play after he confessed that following Monday that he had killed a kid and stomped his head in the ground. What ended up happening is that a group of us came together and started to share stories, connect pieces together. and we realize there was a lot of corruption there was this gang the gilbert goons and many other

things going on just not in queen creek but in gilbert and chandler as well so this project lily was formed uh in november by these amazing people in our community we fought every day try and this we do the town council meetings we go to channel unified school district meetings gilbert unified school district meetings and we're trying to reach out to other districts as well but project lily was formed um and we named it project lily because it matches with preston lord's initials pl and it's we're dedicated to dismantling the cycle of teen on team violence by fostering a culture of understanding respect and proactive engagement among young individuals. We are committed to enlightening the youth about the profound impact of their

actions on peers and communities and advocating for empathy and nurturing the courage to stand up against violence. Through education, awareness, campaigns, and peer-led initiatives, Project Lilly aims to transform bystanders into upstanders and empower them to create safe and supportive and inclusive environments. And that's great work that you do. Talk to me about what the community is feeling regarding what happened here, because, you know, this is a very high profile case. And I could also sense kind of a frustration that it took so long for there to be arrests and indictments. I mean, this happened back in October. We're now talking about indictments in March. But talk to me about what the feeling is like right now in the community. There's a sense of relief in that

there are seven the these seven kids have the reality is they're young men sorry these these young these young men have been at least charged and we still have to get through the whole judicial process to get a conviction but as far as the the community is concerned at least in those first steps there is the relief in addition to that there's also a lot of awareness that's been raised. We've really started to peel back that onion to see this wasn't just a one-off. You know, it wasn't just an accident or anything like that. This actually is organized bullying. What we have learned as a community is that there is a group of kids who can act with impurity because, or excuse me, impunity because they know the larger group will help them.

And because they have that large group behind them, they can, and they do get away with a lot, which is why their actions ended up leading them to murdering Preston over what we are saying is a $10 necklace. It has nothing to do with that necklace. It has to do, it has everything to do with organized bullying. And if nothing's done about this sort of behavior, there will be more Preston's. Whatever the reason. How do you matter? So as I mentioned before, the Gilbert, there is an alleged association between the suspects and the Gilbert goons, this reported gang.

You're saying, are you saying that they are a part of it? Because, again, it hasn't been substantiated. It hasn't been confirmed, at least in the court records, that they're a part of this. But do you believe they're a part of this gang? Yes, yes, absolutely. We do know the one of the assailants that was arrested. had posted even a previously on a like a some sound bit account and it was about gilbert goons there was a rap out there and so yes so they have been bragging about being the gilbert goons

for well over a year now even longer than that have you been given any explanation about why it took so long for there to be arrests and indictments in this case have we been given any reason? Yeah, any reason? I mean, I understand you are a part of following this case, and I know I feel like there's been a little bit of frustration on the part of law enforcement, why it took so long. But as you can heard from the county attorney, there was so much information and materials and videos, 600 videos, I believe, to go through.

So it's not surprising that it took a while, but has there been a sense of frustration in the community that there weren't arrests in Preston Lord's case until months later? Yes. Yeah, absolutely. And go ahead, Angela, if you want to say something, let me, I just want to say, okay. Yes, absolutely. So, you know, and when we take a step back and we look at the situation as a whole, now that we're on the other side and we have these seven arrests, four months doesn't feel very long. But as we all learned every waking moment, this, it was very much drug out. And those four months, during those four months, just felt like it was taking forever. But part of the reason, the reason why it felt like it was taking forever

was because it was. The reality is this case, there was minimal media coverage, minimal, minimal talk amongst law enforcement. We weren't being reassured by our leaders that we had this murder and that we were not being reassured that this community is,

is safe. And so for for teenagers to take someone's life, there's anger that needs to be addressed that we were not aware of in our community. And so those four months felt like forever. And for the teens that had to sit in school in classes with some of these murderers, because they did go to school. Their parents did send them to school. And they went to school with our kids. And our kids did not feel safe. And so, so in that respect, the four months absolutely took forever because we did not feel protected by our leaders. And we did not, we certainly haven't felt protected by law enforcement. And Angela, I know you wanted to jump in on there. Basically the same thing that she said, except for, you know, just the add-in that the lack of

communication was huge and it was heard throughout all of the cities. And, We, it is very difficult when our entire community is hearing what went on and in, in the police aren't joining with us and trying to navigate this. We just felt very left alone. We felt very unheard. And we're talking about kids. We're not talking about a 40 year old woman. We're talking about a 16 year old boy that hasn't even graduated high school yet. You know, this is a kid that just got his driver's license.

We all remember being 16 years old and finally having that freedom to go dry. And all he went to do is to go be a 16-year-old kid and his life was taken from him. But I was going to ask, I mean, and I don't know which one of you had done this, but did you speak to Preston Lord's stepmom on the phone recently about what's been going on and how she's feeling? We speak with her on a regular basis. Oh, you do. And how is she doing? How is the family doing? Well, well, it's understandable under an intense amount of grief. And Autumn and Nick are doing their best to process this and go through grief with their daughter.

Melissa, the bonus mom, has just been in a remarkable woman. I don't think I've ever met a stronger woman than her. I mean, she gets my emotions going because he has held his feelings. family up and she has embraced the entire community and she is fighting for her son but she's okay doing the best she can when you speak of when you speak to

yeah I was going to say like did you what did you learn about Preston that we don't know about oh what was he like oh my goodness great question go ahead Angela gosh he was just an amazing kid okay like not only was he smart and he excelled in academics

he'd even got an award last year just so great in his academics he was an athlete who played sports basketball football and golf he was close with his his niece who was 19 months younger than him they were best friends but he was also best friends with his sister he was very close to his community and any time i do talk to anybody that knew pressing because i did not unfortunately know him prior um he's he he helped every single person he took time out if you needed the door open he'd open the door if you needed a tire change and he didn't know how to do it he figured it out with you he just was that kid that he was an automatic friend to everybody this is such a

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or dial 855, Tom wins. I want to circle back to something that we talked about and let's be clear, right? The individuals who were arrested, they will have their day in court. They will be put on a defense. They are innocent until proven guilty, but there are arrests, and there is evidence put forward against them. Having said that, yes. One of the things that I think is interesting about this case is that officers were alerted

to this area about 45 minutes earlier in the night. At about 9.07 p.m., they see this large group of teens, juveniles. They didn't see anything criminal, though. They didn't see anything to warrant a stop. And then they're called to the seen later on. What can tell us about that and whether or not that is something that has been a source of criticism of the law of law enforcement in the community? So I just say something about that is I talked at the Queen Creek City Council meeting and you know I had seen videos where there were just cars blocking driveways and if the police were going in and out like you could

not notice that there were over 200 and something kids in this area there If there was an emergency, you couldn't get in or out of that area. And it just seems so odd that this was missed. Like you got there and nothing was going on, that you wouldn't even want to check it out. And then you left and you came back and this is what you found. It just seems very odd. That's a puzzle piece that's missing. And now the Queen Creek Police, they are a new police department.

So now they have a homicide and, you know, this is all new to them. I mean, they've done the best that they can, but I think that what really hurt the community is that there was just no communication. Even when there's nothing going on about the case, just say something and let the citizens know, hey, this is what we're working on. This is what we're doing and this is what our goal is. There was no communication sometimes for weeks, and it was like we as a group had to come. come to city council meetings, come to school boards and everything and just try to pull out information. Give us a report.

Like, let us know you're still working, you know? So. Well, I also, my understanding was also there's a ton of misinformation that was coming out online about this, which is a problem in the community. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I read that a 17-year-old was falsely accused as being one of the killers. And he was threatened because someone posted the wrong address online. I mean, I don't know if you know about that, but I've been reading about how there hasn't been a lot of information, you know, like you said, information coming out from law enforcement that we've seen kind of these rumors and untruths coming out online.

Yeah, we are aware of that, of that 17-year-old. You know, we are, it is unfortunate that that 17-year-old was, I believe he was threatened. However, that's that truly what the reason truly how we got how did we get there, how did it happen? It goes back to that lack of communication. We're hearing about the Gilbert Goons. One thing that when as Project Lilly started to get up and running, the thing that we started to learn about was that these young men have been going, around to various places, to public establishments. And they have been beating, beating these kids.

And they jump them from behind. They show up in carloads. They beat the kids. And then the community is left to pick up the pieces. But these Gilbert goons, moreover, they recorded their fights. They posted them online. The they posted, they, they, they filmed any police interaction and they were bragging about their police interaction.

And so the message that that gave the community was that the police didn't, they weren't doing anything. And so as humans, we tend to start to fill in those blanks when those blanks are not filled in for us. And so the, what has been called doxing, in fact, we have a very good friend of ours was charged with doxing. And, and in reality, that man, he did not dox. He did not threaten to, he didn't, nobody threat, nobody that part of our organization asked anybody to go to anybody's house and to be a vigilante. If there were addresses posted in private groups that we were not a part of, but again, this is all a result of the police and our leaders not communicating to us when we needed them in this time of crisis, which is another

region Project Lilly was formed because somebody, anybody needed to help start healing the community because we are hurting. And tragedies like this can and do break communities apart and we can no longer be divided. Teen violence is an issue that affects everybody. It doesn't matter your political party. It doesn't matter how much money you have or not money. The bottom line is this affects everybody. And again, we need responsible leaders that will talk to us and be accountable. It's okay to make mistakes. We just have to own those mistakes, learn from them and move forward and be better and always do better. And that kind of ties into something that we were talking about before about the circumstances of this. We mentioned how the necklace

might have been kind of a clue in the case as to what happened, but you were making the point that the necklace is not even the issue here. It's more about teen violence in general, but with respect to Preston himself and the specific circumstances of that case of what happened to him, do you have any more information about what the beef was about, who the necklace belonged to, how that situation unfolded, or are we just, you know, still trying to get more information from law enforcement ourselves? we are still trying to get more information from law enforcement we we have an idea who we believe that the necklace belonged to but that's we we can't confirm that right now

and also out of respect for that victim obviously they're just known as victim number two gotcha okay but but my i do my understanding is did you speak with the teenagers who who gave Preston or CPR at the party, who actually might have been able to keep them alive for several days, or two days, I should say. Did you speak with them? We all got a chance to speak with them, and they are true heroes.

I always believe that there is divine order, and these kids, unfortunately, there was a suicide that happened at their high school. And so all of their events got canceled. And so they found out that there was this party that was coming up. And so they drove 45 minutes to Queen Creek, like they are not even near this area. And so they drove to the party, and they were saying that they went in to get one of their friends, and they came out. And it was where they found Preston.

And these were lifeguards, and they took action. And there was one kid that told us that he stood guard kind of behind the mailbox to make sure. that no one else came in to attack them or anything. And I truly believe, this is what I believe, and I just have to accept this, that they gave Preston just enough life so that he could get medical help that he needed so that his family could give the proper goodbye, that his family didn't have to find him or anyone have to find him on the street, not alive. And I believe they gave him that source of life and just that these kids just took action.

I mean, they were true American heroes and they're special boys. They are so special. So and they're very, very polite and the parents of those boys should be absolutely proud because they didn't know Preston, Preston didn't know them and, you know, they didn't did CPR on him and gave him life. Did they give you any, I mean, first of all, just an heartbreaking to think about. And yes, true heroes to be able to jump in like that. It's incredible to think about this happening to a 16-year-old boy for such a, it makes no sense. Did they give you any indication about what state Preston was in? You know, there's been conflicting

reports. As I mentioned before, there's been no cause of death officially released. Did they give any indication about what state he was in? It was very bad. It was a very bad situation. And just the fact that these are, you know, juniors that they just took action. They said, you know, we're lifeguards and, you know, we didn't expect to do this at a party. We expected to, you know, do it at a pool or something. That's what we were trained. But, you know, we knew that he needed help and that's just how he helped them. Well, I have to tell you, first of all, it's just a horrific crime. We are now entering into a different stage of this process and we'll follow where it goes. But the work that you three are doing with Project Lilly is so important.

Unfortunately, we cover these kinds of cases across the nation. It's really disheartening to see. But I want to wish you all the best of luck. Anne, Chris, Angela, if you could tell everybody real quick, if they want to support Project Lilly or they want to get more involved in, you know, fighting against teen-on-teen violence, what would you advocate that they do? But we have a couple ways that you can get in touch with us. We have our website, which is www.we. We are Lily.org. Right now we are, it's a basic website, but you can put your email address in, and we can

keep in touch with you as well. In addition to that, we have events, I'll let Angela talk about that, but we are going to be putting on events every month, basically, to help support and raise money for victims and our and our cause but one thing I really want to talk about is if people are here local in the Chandler school area we have a petition to recall are the Chandler unified school board president we are we are demanding better leadership and no more bullying in our schools she's not on the same page as us so if people want to come out and sign a petition again look for us either on our website hopefully we get events there and we have our facebook page as well which is lily waterfield

that people can follow us on go ahead we're all orange shirts orange is the color orange is the color angela uh yeah our uh events that we have coming up on march 24th we have an upstander spring festival are honoring preston lord um that's off of rancho del pacifico Belvista and Riggs in Gilbert, Arizona. That's gonna be from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. We also have a Glow Walk for teens. That is the locations to be determined, but it's April 12th, or no, I'm sorry,

it's April 13th that we are doing the Glow Walk. We have a summit on April 20th. That is a summit that's meant to bring young kids and parents. parents together to learn more about social media, the impact of social media, teen on teen violence, and many other great resources that teenagers face. And so we're looking, we're starting out about third, I believe third or fourth grade registration to eighth grade. So we're hoping that kids and parents will go to the summit. They'll get a plethora of information. They'll do some

some workshops and then come together at the end speaking the same language and that's that's just the first step in combating this teen on teen violence we're going to have a lot more events coming up but one of the biggest events that we have that's always going to be reoccurring is the 28th of the of every month we will always have a night the light walk for preston lord we will be doing that every month until we get a conviction that's great and people can donate money to our cause we are a non-profit And it is a tech. We are a 501C. Yep.

And so they can, if they want to donate money, please, we need as much money as we can. We need sponsors and everything. Well, I tell you, I think after the conversation and after people hear more about what you're doing and maybe you're informed about the problem that's happening, not just in Arizona, but across the country, you'll hopefully get that kind of support that you're looking for. But listen, Ann, Chris, Angela, really appreciate you coming on talking a little bit more about the case, talking a little bit more about project.

Lily, we very much appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you so much. All right. That's all we have for you here on Sidebar, everybody. Thank you so much for joining us. Please subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Jesse Weber.

Speak to you next time. You can binge all episodes of this Law and Crime series. Add free right now on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.