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5 TEENAGE BOYS DOUSE ANOTHER TEENAGE BOY WITH RUBBING ALCOHOL AND THEN SET HIM ON FIRE--AND, OF COURSE, THEY WERE ALL GOOD BOYS--WITH JUVENILE RECORDS!!!
DEERFIELD
BEACH - Buckets were passed around classrooms at Deerfield Beach Middle
School today to collect donations for a student in critical condition
after he was doused with rubbing alcohol and set on fire.
Michael Brewer, 15, who attended the school along with his five alleged
attackers, is being treated at University of Miami-Jackson Memorial
Burn Center.
Many of Brewer's classmates said they couldn't believe reports he was
set on fire Monday after a squabble involving a video game and a
bicycle.
"I was just shocked," said eighth-grader Jonathan Skalaranko, 13. "I
thought everyone was lying."
Two 15-year-old boys charged in the case appeared in court this
morning.
Steven Sheldon and Jesus Mendez, both 15, are charged with aggravated
battery.
Mendez is also charged with attempted second-degree murder. Authorities
say he took a lighter from his pocket and flicked it at Brewer after
the victim was drenched with rubbing alcohol.
Three other boys -- Denver Jarvis, 15; his 13-year-old brother Jeremy;
and Matthew Bent, 15 -- appeared in court Tuesday and are charged with
aggravated battery.
As he did with the other three boys who are charged, Circuit Judge
Elijah Williams ordered Sheldon and Mendez to the county juvenile
detention center for 21 days while prosecutors decide whether to charge
them as adults.
They also were ordered not to have any contact with each other or
Brewer.
The mothers of both suspects were in court.
"Mom, I don't know what to tell you," Williams said to Mendez's mother,
Yolanda Mendez. "Good luck."
The boys' next court hearing is Nov. 2.
Sheldon's mother, Patricia Hollis, walked out of the courtroom in
tears. She said she didn't want to talk about her son.
Earlier she told WFOR-Ch. 4 that her son was not involved in the
incident.
"I feel so sorry for [Brewer], I really do. And it's sad. It really
is," Hollis said. "My prayers go out to him and his family."
Sheldon, wearing a blue jumpsuit, and Mendez, wearing a green one,
walked calmly out of the courtroom with their wrists and ankles
chained.
Sheriff's investigators say Sheldon admitted to being a part of the
group that approached Brewer.
"As far as I know, no he didn't," Hollis told WFOR. "Wrong place at the
wrong time."
Sharon Jarvis, the mother of the Jarvis brothers, declined to comment
this morning, but said she had hired an attorney.
Brewer's burns have worsened since he was admitted to the University of
Miami-Jackson Memorial Burn Center, where he is in critical condition,
his family said today.
The burns on his hands and feet have gone from second-degree to
third-degree, relative Danny Martinez said.
"He's stable and awake, but his burns are getting worse," Martinez
said.
The burns cover more than two-thirds of Brewer's body, range from
second-degree to third-degree and will eventually develop infections,
Dr. Nicholas Namias said this morning.
"He's in very intensive care," said Namias, who heads the Burn Center.
The teens set Brewer on fire because of a squabble involving a video
game and a bicycle, investigators said.
Danielle Jarvis, 19, said she couldn't believe her brothers were
capable of such a crime. She blamed the "kids that they're hanging out
with" for her brothers' problems.
"I know my brothers didn't intentionally try to hurt anyone," she said.
"Now, they're in a real spot. I'm scared for them."
Meghan O'Connor, 13, an eighth-grader at Deerfield Beach Middle,
described the suspects as "rowdy." But she said she wouldn't have
expected them to be involved in burning someone.
Students said Brewer and the suspects used to be friends. They hung out
at Ruby's Pizza, at the corner of Southeast 10th Street and Southeast
6th Avenue.
Some of the teens charged in the blaze laughed when investigators
confronted them about the attack, the Sheriff's Office said.
During a chance encounter at an apartment complex on Monday afternoon,
the boys accosted Brewer and condemned him as a snitch for calling the
cops on their leader, whom the Sheriff's Office identified as the local
bully.
Brewer tried to leave. They doused him with rubbing alcohol and set him
afire. Flames burned most of his body, especially his torso and arms,
and seared off much of his hair, including his eyebrows, family members
said.
Bent told his accomplices to "pour it on him," investigators said,
based on their interviews with the suspects.
Brewer tore off his shirt and jumped in an apartment complex pool.
Sheriff Al Lamberti called it "a case of retaliation."
Staff Writer Sofia Santana contributed to this report.
Robert Nolin can be reached at rnolin@sunsentinel.com or 954-356-4525.
