14-Year-Old Charged With Murder In Lealman Shooting: Pinellas Sheriff

LEALMAN, FL — A 14-year-old boy faces a first-degree murder charge in a Thursday morning shooting in unincorporated St. Petersburg, the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release.

It’s unknown whether the suspect is being charged as a juvenile or adult yet, the State Attorney’s Office told Patch. It’s Patch policy to not name minors who are charged as juveniles.

Deputies found the victim, 39-year-old Leslie Fernandez, lying face down in the road with a gunshot wound to her upper body just before 11 a.m.

The shooting took place in the Lealman area, at the intersection of 27th Street N. and 59th Avenue N.

Though deputies performed life-saving measures on Fernandez until the fire department arrived, she was pronounced dead after being brought to a nearby hospital, the sheriff’s office said.

Detectives identified the 14-year-old as the suspect who was seen riding away from the area on his bicycle after the shooting.

When investigators went to the teen’s home on 29th Street N. with a search warrant on Friday, they found the gun used in the fatal shooting, the sheriff’s office said.

They also found other guns, rounds of ammunition, 3.8 kilograms of cocaine, 53 grams of crack cocaine, 3 grams of MDMA, and nearly $185,000 in cash.

The boy, who got the gun from the bedroom of his father, Jarvis Spencer, 37, confessed to shooting Fernandez at random, the sheriff’s office said.

The teen was charged with one count of first-degree murder and brought to the Pinellas Juvenile Assessment Center.

Spencer, who has a lengthy criminal history, including 15 felony convictions, also faces multiple charges.

The boy’s father, who was uncooperative with detectives, was arrested and charged with seven counts of being a felon in possession of a firearm, one count of being a felon in possession of ammunition, one count of possession of a firearm with an altered serial number, one count of armed trafficking in crack cocaine, one count of armed trafficking in powder cocaine and one count of grand theft firearm.