MIAMI – Miami-Dade County Circuit Judge Mindy S. Glazer was confused on Tuesday when a teenage boy appeared in a courtroom where adults hoping to be released appear after their arrest.
Glazer asked Berry Petitdos to wait until she could figure out why he wasn’t in juvenile court. Corrections inmate records reported a police officer had a felony judge sign the warrant for his arrest.
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“He is 17. We don’t have jurisdiction,” Glazer said before a prosecutor in court told her an assistant state attorney wanted to charge Petitdos as an adult.
Glazer announced she was transferring the case to juvenile court. She also warned Berry, who turned 17 on March 31, that “chances are” he will be back in adult court “given the serious nature of the charges.”
Berry was the only minor out of a group of suspects, ages 18 and 19, in a crime spree involving a stolen dark gray 2019 Jeep on Aug. 31, in Miami-Dade and Broward counties, police said.
According to Officer Kiara Delva, a spokeswoman for the Miami Police Department, the group kidnapped a man at about 10 a.m., at the Flanigan’s Seafood Bar and Grill, at 2721 Bird Ave., in Coconut Grove.
The kidnappers ordered the man to withdraw cash out of his bank account, and when he refused one of them struck him in the face with a gun, according to the Miami Police Department.
The man was able to ask a bank teller for help at a Bank of America in Plantation, and a police pursuit after the stolen Jeep started at about 3 p.m., in Fort Lauderdale, police said.
The driver crashed — injuring a person in another car — and the Jeep flipped over until it struck a building near the intersection of Southwest Third Street and 27 Terrace, according to Detective Ali Adamson, a spokeswoman for the Fort Lauderdale Police Department.
Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue personnel took the injured to the Broward Health Medical Center, police said. Detectives identified the other suspects who were with Berry as Erick Melgar, who turned 18 on May 3; Kevin Tomlinson, who turned 18 on April 27; and Leondre Walker, 19.
Broward Sheriff’s Office deputies were holding Melgar at the North Broward Bureau in Pompano Beach without bond, records show. He was facing charges in Broward of aggravated fleeing with serious bodily injury; fleeing and eluding law enforcement; and grand theft auto.
BSO deputies were holding Walker at the Joseph V. Conte Facility in Pompano Beach without bond, records show. He was facing charges in Broward of resisting an officer without violence and grand theft auto.
BSO deputies extradited Tomlinson to Miami-Dade County on Tuesday. He was at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center without bond and facing charges in Miami-Dade of aggravated assault with a firearm, aggravated battery, armed robbery, and armed kidnapping, records show.
BSO deputies also extradited Berry on Tuesday to Miami-Dade County where he was facing charges of aggravated assault with a firearm, aggravated battery, armed robbery, and armed kidnapping.
Detectives were asking anyone with information about the cases to call Miami-Dade County Crime Stoppers at 305-471-8477 or Broward County Crime Stoppers at 954-493-8477.