by Angiekay » Sun Feb 17, 2008 5:42 am
Teen to be tried as adult in robbery of Girl Scout
By Sally Apgar
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
February 8, 2008
An 18-year-old who detectives say confessed to stealing $164 from a Girl Scout selling cookies is expected to be tried in adult court for petty theft, state attorney spokesman Michael Edmondson said.
The teen was still 17 and therefore a juvenile when she allegedly drove the getaway car last week. The South Florida Sun-Sentinel is not identifying her because of her age at the time.
Edmondson said the State Attorney's Office could announce the moving of the case to adult court as early as today. Prosecutors have the power to move a juvenile case if there is a prior history that includes a felony.
The teen told detectives she drove the getaway car and said she and her accomplice, another student at Park Vista High School, wanted to split the money and go shopping at the mall.
The juvenile accomplice, who has not been charged, struck up a conversation with Gracie Smith, 9, who was selling cookies from a table set up in front of the Winn-Dixie supermarket at Hypoluxo and Jog roads west of Boynton Beach. The teen grabbed an envelope containing $164 off the table and jumped into her friend's waiting silver Mitsubishi.
The cookie theft has attracted public attention and angry e-mails have been posted to Internet news sites following one teen's appearance in a widely broadcast interview in which she described the crime as "so easy" and expressed no remorse. The State Attorney's Office was also slammed with angry e-mails from people who want the two teens punished.
The 18-year-old was arrested this week on her birthday because her probation officer determined the alleged theft violated conditions of her probation in an unrelated case that involved battery of an ex-boyfriend. She appeared at a hearing in juvenile court Thursday with her attorney, Lewis Hanna, for violating that probation. Hanna said she denied the violation. She is scheduled for another hearing on the probation matter Feb. 29.
