MIRAMAR, Fla. – Friends and neighbors of slain 18-year-old Miramar High School student Dwight “DJ” Grant are planning a Tuesday night candlelight vigil in his honor.
A few balloons mark where an officer found Grant’s body on Oct. 19. About two days after classmates carried his body over a railing and dragged him into bushes at the New Park Towers.
Detectives arrested Andre Clemens III, 17, Christie Parisienne, 17, and Jaslyn Smith, 16, who are facing charges in Grant’s Oct. 17 murder. According to the arrest warrants, they planned to kill him.
“I feel bad for the kid’s mom,” said Anita Beasley, the parent of a Miramar High School student. “It’s a sad situation for everybody.”
Christie and Jaslyn confessed to participating in the murder and revealed how Andre persuaded them to help him kill Grant, according to the arrest warrant released on Monday.
Jaslyn, who lived in the same apartment complex as Christie, was falsely under the assumption that Grant had raped Andre’s ex-girlfriend when the relationship was consensual, police said.
Detectives reported messages between the teenagers showed Andre was angry after Grant had consensual sex with his ex-girlfriend and persuaded Christie, his girlfriend, to help kill Grant.
“Murder will definitely happen soon,” Andre wrote in a message to Christie on Oct. 11, according to the warrant.
After Andre and Christie exchanged “I love you” messages, Andre also sent his ex-girlfriend a threatening message about his romantic rival, according to the arrest warrant.
“We have plans for this person ... If he made you happy, get used to him not being here anymore,” Andre wrote.
Surveillance video recorded on Oct. 17 shows Andre, Christie, and Jaslyn walking together before Christie propositioned Grant for sex to lure him out of his apartment and into the stairwell, records show.
Andre and Jaslyn were armed and dressed all in black to wait in the stairwell where they ambushed and attacked Grant, police said. Grant fought back and pleaded with them to let him go, police said.
“You know who I am and why I am here. You know I have to kill you now,” Andre said, according to Jaslyn’s confession to detectives, the arrest warrant shows.
Christie said she acted as a lookout while Jaslyn held Grant down and Andre punched him repeatedly and later stabbed him in the neck with a knife and in the chest with a sword, according to the warrant.
Christie used cleaning supplies to get rid of the blood at the crime scene and the teens set their clothes on fire and tossed the ashes into the lake, according to the warrant.
Andre, Christie, and Jaslyn are facing charges of first-degree murder, tampering with evidence, and criminal conspiracy. Detectives collected evidence at the teenagers’ homes in Miramar and Pembroke Pines. Their next appearance in court is on Nov. 4.