Two Florida teenagers convicted of murdering a 12-year-old girl will spend the rest of their lives in prison.
Matthew Rice, 18, was sentenced earlier this month in the August 2023 shooting death of Mariah Smith. Smith was sitting on a couch in her home when Rice and Jayden Burch opened fire, spraying the home with gunfire, WCJB-20 reported.
Burch was sentenced earlier and also received a life sentence. A third person, Jatarious Fluellen, still has charges pending, according to the station.
Prosecutors said that Burch has an issue with Smith's brother.
"There is no homicide here without Jayden Burch," assistant state attorney Sean Crisafulli said at Burch's Oct. 13 sentencing, according to the website Law&Crime. "It was from Jayden Burch's home that those individuals left to do what they did. And it was Jayden Burch who had the beef with [Mariah's brother] that started this."
"Within an hour of the homicide, he is bragging on Instagram to a girl about how he did this to [Mariah]," the prosecutor added. "And then taking further actions to then cover it up, saying that he deleted the message, et cetera, not knowing that we could still retrieve them."
Lake City officials renamed NW Long Street to "Mariah Reginae Smith Forever 12 Memorial Street."
"This is history," Mariah's mother Todneisha Filer said according to First Coast News. "This is the first time in history Lake City has ever done anything like this. No other family should have to go through what I'm going through and I'm praying that we can stop the gun violence."
