WEST PALM BEACH – More than five years after a shooting that left two teenagers dead at a West Palm Beach-area park, authorities have arrested a 27-year-old man in connection with the crime.
Palm Beach County Sheriff’s deputies booked Jabari Scott into jail on Monday, October 7, to face charges in the murder of 17-year-old Moltere Charles Jr. and 16-year-old Frederick Rosemond at Lake on January 13, 2019. Belvedere Estate Park.
A grand jury formally indicted Scott in June on two counts of first-degree murder with a firearm in the Lake Belvedere Estates Park shooting. He also faces five additional counts of attempted murder.
Under the orders of Judge Scott Suskauer, who will preside over Scott’s trial, state officials transferred Scott from the custody of the Florida Department of Corrections, where he is serving a 10-year sentence at Lancaster Correctional Institution in a separate attempted murder case. .
During a hearing on Tuesday, October 8, Circuit Judge Donald Hafele appointed Scott a public defender and ordered him held without bail. It is policy that the Provincial Public Prosecution Service does not comment on open cases.
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Sheriff’s investigators said Charles and Rosemond were shot and killed as they and a group of friends hung out listening to music in the park, on Caroline Avenue near Haverhill Road. A third person was also shot but survived.
Relatives of Charles and Rosemond told The Palm Beach Post that the teens were from a Sweet 16 birthday party held at a banquet hall about two miles to the east.
According to the sheriff’s arrest report, the teens and a group of friends were standing near or resting in vehicles on the north side of the park when at least one person approached and began shooting indiscriminately at them.
Investigators obtained surveillance footage from a neighboring home, which shows one person armed with a handgun and another armed with a rifle. The sheriff’s firearms laboratory determined that shell casings and projectiles found in the killing matched casings recovered nearby in separate shootings in December.
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Through ballistic analysis and surveillance footage, investigators identified Scott as a suspect in the December 2018 shootings. After being taken into custody for a probation violation, he admitted to involvement in the December shootings but denied any involvement in the Lake Belvedere Estates killings, the arrest report said.
He told investigators he was near Palm Beach Lakes Boulevard, more than two miles away, when the killings occurred.
According to the arrest report, investigators obtained a recording of a phone conversation Scott made with a friend shortly after his interview with investigators. Scott described being questioned about the double murder and instructed his friend to go to Scott’s house, retrieve the clothing Scott was wearing on the night in question and burn it, the report said.
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He also instructed his friend to delete social media posts from him, especially posts showing clothing he was wearing at the time of the murders. Investigators determined that the information Scott disseminated during the recorded phone calls was inconsistent with the information he provided to investigators.
A review of cellphone records placed a cellphone belonging to Scott in the area of the murder scene that evening, investigators said. They also determined that Scott used his mobile device to investigate how to alter or alter evidence associated with an AK-47 Draco-style pistol. Forensic analysts linked some shell casings to that type of gun, and investigators found evidence that Scott possessed one in the days surrounding the shootings.
Julius Whigham II is a criminal justice and public safety reporter for The Palm Beach Post. You can reach him at jwhigham@pbpost.com and follow him on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter @JuliusWhigham. Support our work: Subscribe today.
This article originally appeared on the Palm Beach Post: Murder charges in teen shootings at West Palm Beach park
