The Polk County State Attorney's Office says it will charge all eight teens believed to be involved in the beating of a classmate as adults. The suspects will have their first appearance in a Polk County courtroom on Friday.
Being charged as an adult carries with it much stiffer penalties, possib... (More)ly including up to life in prison on the kidnapping charges. Facing charges of battery, false imprisonment and kidnapping are Mercades Nichols, 17, Brittini Hardcastle, 17, April Cooper, 14, Cara Murphy, 16, Britney Mayes, 17, Kayla Hassell, 15, Zachary Ashley, 17, and Stephen Schumaker, 18. The two boys are accused of acting as lookouts outside the house in which the beating took place on March 30.
Meanwhile, a central Florida couple says they're being hounded by angry callers who mistakenly think they're connected to the notorious videotaped beating.
Darlene and Jerry Ashley's phone number was mistakenly posted by a user of the YouTube video-sharing Web site, along with the numbers of the other teens charged in the beating.
Callers think the Lakeland couple are the parents of one of the teen boys involved who has the same last name.
They say they got around 300 angry, abusive calls Wednesday.
The videotaped beating released on Monday by the Polk County Sheriff's Office was just one of five fights filmed over a period of 30 minutes. At one point the victim's head is slammed into a bedroom wall and she's knocked unconscious. Investigators say the beating happened on March 30th in Lakeland while the victim was spending time at a friend's house during spring break.
Lindsay's parents have decided to have her home-schooled.
"When we had them in custody at the station, they were laughing about it, saying, 'Well, I guess this spring break we won't go to the beach," Judd told The Early Show. "One of the suspects asked the detective, 'Am I going to get to go to cheerleading practice tomorrow?"
"They showed absolutely no remorse at all," Judd said.
Lindsay was taken to the hospital by ambulance and treated for a concussion, damage to her left eye and left ear, and numerous bruises, the report said.
Lindsay's father, Patrick, said the teens' motivation for the attack was to produce a video that would become popular on YouTube, a video-sharing Web site.
He told The Early Show that he has not been able to watch the video, that he is too distraught, although his wife has. (Less)
