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Documents: Students Told Guard Twice About Dead Teen

Prosecutors Release Additional Statements In Middle School Killing

POSTED: 12:34 p.m. EST March 31, 2004
UPDATED: 1:56 p.m. EST March 31, 2004

Prosecutors have released statements of classmates of a 14-year-old boy charged in a Miami school killing.

According to the statements, a seventh-grader who found Jaime Rodrigo Gough in a Southwood middle school bathroom had to tell a security guard twice before the guard did anything about it.

The seventh-grader, identified only as B.G., said he walked into the bathroom and noticed blood and shoes dangling in a stall.

"I saw like feet, like dangling. And then I looked again like closer and it was like blood," the student said in a police statement.

The boy also said Michael Hernandez, the accused killer, was in the bathroom at the time.

Prosecutors previously released a videotaped confession by the 14-year-old Hernandez of planning to kill another student. He has been charged with first-degree murder.

The seventh-grader said he told a security guard about what he had seen, and the guard said he'd look into it.

The boy returned to the bathroom with a friend and this time opened the stall to find Gough's slain body. He said the guard paid more attention the second time.

A classmate who sat next to Hernandez when the school was put into lockdown said he saw blood on Hernandez's shirt, legs, shoes and mouth.

The classmate said he overheard Hernandez explain the blood by telling one classmate he was hit by a door, and telling a girl and teacher he had a nosebleed.

Hernandez also allegedly explained that Gough's death was inevitable if one believed in fate.

"He said there is something about fate, like if you believe in fate this would have happened anyways, and he gave an example. If like he was at his house, he would have died no matter what. Someone would have came and got him or something else would have happened to him," the student said.

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