Three men were charged Saturday (December 1) with felony first-degree murder in the shooting death of NFL player Sean Taylor. Although police believe the death was unplanned, the charge of felony first-degree murder can be applied if someone is killed, even accidentally, during certain violent felony crimes.
Police have more than one confession in the case, according to Robert Parker, director of the Miami-Dade Police Department.
Court documents state Eric Rivera Jr., 17; Venjah K. Hunte, 20; and Charles Kendrick Lee Wardlow, 18, each face charges of felony first-degree murder, burglary with a firearm and home invasion robbery while armed. Rivera appeared in a courtroom in Fort Myers, Florida, while Hunte and Wardlow appeared via video phone from jail.
A fourth suspect, Jason Scott Mitchell, 19, was processed too late to appear in court, officials said. He is to be in court Sunday, and he faces the same charges as the other three.
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“The four men were expecting to find an unoccupied home, so murder or shooting someone was not their initial motive,” Parker said.
“They were certainly not looking to go there and kill anyone,” he continued. “Their obvious motive was to go there and steal the contents of the house.“
“The key to solving this case was citizens’ tips,”
Taylor, 24, a safety for the Washington Redskins, died Tuesday, a day after he was shot during an apparent burglary at his Miami home.
