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
MIAMI -- 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.
Copyright 2004 by Local10.com.
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