Miami Herald
Criminal case dropped against Florida teen who fatally shot pal while 'simulating' rap video
By David Ovalle, Miami Herald 54 mins ago
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Miami Herald logoCriminal case dropped against Florida teen who fatally shot pal while 'simulating' rap video
MIAMI — Prosecutors have dropped the manslaughter case against an 18-year-old who accidentally shot and killed his friend in Hialeah while he was “simulating a rap video” for a Snapchat post.
a close up of a gun: The modified Glock pistol that killed Brian Meridor in Hialeah, Florida, on October 22, 2020. Prosecutors on December 4, 2020, dropped the manslaughter case against the teen who fired the weapon.© Miami-Dade St. Attorney's Office/Miami Herald/TNS The modified Glock pistol that killed Brian Meridor in Hialeah, Florida, on October 22, 2020. Prosecutors on December 4, 2020, dropped the manslaughter case against the teen who fired the weapon.
The state on Friday declined to file the charge against Jonathan Batista, who had been arrested for the Oct. 22 death of Brian Shakur Meridor, 18.
The reason: the Glock pistol had been modified, and the teen said he didn’t think it worked. In reality, the modification made the weapon dangerously defective and it likely fired without the teen even pulling the trigger.
“The gun is very unsafe, and there is nothing about the defect that would be obvious to the untrained user,” Assistant State Attorney Sara Imm wrote in her final memo on the case.
The prosecutor wrote that because the state could not prove Batista pulled the trigger, his conduct “does not rise to the level of culpable negligence required to prove manslaughter.”
