Two King County teenagers were charged with murder Friday, accused by prosecutors and police in the fatal shooting of 18-year-old Nena Edmonds in her Federal Way apartment in February.
Jelani Medina, 19, will be arraigned Wednesday in King County Superior Court on a charge of first-degree murder with a firearm, constituting domestic violence. In court filings Friday, prosecutors requested that Medina, who they said was in an intimate relationship with Edmonds, be held on $5 million bail.
Prosecutors also requested that Medina’s alleged accomplice, a 16-year-old boy who was 15 when Edmonds was killed, be tried in adult court on charges of second-degree murder with a firearm and second-degree unlawful possession of a firearm, court records show.
Under state law, prosecutors can request that a juvenile be tried as an adult if they were 15 or older when they allegedly committed a serious violent offense. Youths convicted in juvenile court are typically released by age 21, while teens whose cases are moved into adult court can be kept in custody until age 25, King County prosecuting attorney’s office spokesperson Doug Wagoner said Friday in an email.
A hearing to discuss the request is scheduled Monday.
The Seattle Times typically does not name juvenile suspects unless they are charged as adults.
In their request for Medina’s bail amount, prosecutors noted that he and the 16-year-old allegedly robbed a Bellevue convenience store three weeks after Edmonds’ death, with trial scheduled for Nov. 12. Seattle police arrested Medina in September after they found him allegedly “engaging in threatening conduct” while carrying a ghost gun, court records show.
Medina has been in custody at King County Jail since his Sept. 15 arrest on an allegation of second-degree unlawful possession of a firearm, jail records show.
Edmonds’ two sisters told Federal Way police they last saw her alive at about 3:30 p.m. on Feb. 13, when they dropped her off at her apartment near Southwest Campus Drive and 17th Avenue Southwest.
A Hyundai Elantra was captured in surveillance camera footage entering the apartment complex’s parking lot about 15 minutes later, allegedly carrying Medina, the other teen now charged and three friends, court records show.
According to a police report by a Federal Way detective, Edmonds and Medina had gotten into an argument at least two weeks earlier, when she found out he had allegedly gotten another girl pregnant. Investigators say Medina has told them he went to Edmonds’ apartment Feb. 13 to ask her to delete videos she had of them together from her cellphone.
Medina and the now-16-year-old, who was allegedly carrying a pistol in his hand, walked up to Edmonds’ apartment and knocked on the door, leaving one friend waiting on the staircase outside and two others in the car, according to court records. Edmonds opened the door and let the two boys inside, court records show.
Edmonds refused Medina's request to delete the videos, and he allegedly went to her bedroom to retrieve her cellphone, leaving her and his friend in the living room. He decided to take the phone with him because it wouldn’t turn on, according to court records.
Before Medina could leave the apartment, investigators said Edmonds jumped onto his back to prevent him from taking the phone. The boy allegedly tried pushing Edmonds off Medina’s back and she punched at him.
The boy fired twice. One of the bullets struck Edmonds in the face and traveled into her neck, court records show.
The friend they left waiting on the staircase later told investigators he heard a gunshot before seeing Medina and the boy leave Edmonds’ apartment, according to court records. One of the friends waiting in the car told police he heard the boy scream, “I shot her!” three times before he, Medina and the other friend rushed back into the car, the records say.
Surveillance camera footage of the apartment complex’s parking lot at 4:05 p.m. showed the car speeding out of the lot, around a slower car and through a red light to turn onto Southwest Campus Drive, court records show.
Someone called 911 about 30 minutes later to report finding Edmonds unresponsive on the sidewalk outside of her apartment complex.
Federal Way police say that at some point during their six-month investigation, Medina told them he had not seen Edmonds that day, according to court records. He then said he had been near her apartment, and later said he had gone inside, but left before she was harmed, court records show.
Investigators say Medina eventually told them he had gone to Edmonds’ apartment to delete videos from her cellphone and that his then-15-year-old friend had shot her after she jumped on his back, according to court records.
Investigators reviewed cellphone records, which showed both Medina and his co-conspirator’s devices were near Edmonds’ apartment during the time she was killed.
Federal Way police officers arrested the 16-year-old at his Issaquah apartment Wednesday, according to a social media post the next day by the agency.
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