slaying Archives - Home Safety Tech Pros

Killer laid in wait before slaying man over Facebook ‘rumor’

homesafetytechpros — Wed, 12 Feb 2025 08:52:23 +0000

Background: Mark Bent at his sentencing hearing on Monday, Feb. 10, 2023 (East Idaho News). Inset: Nikolas Bird (Flamm Funeral Home).

An Idaho man was sentenced this week to a minimum of 45 years and a maximum of life in prison for murdering a man he says bullied him on Facebook — shooting him 17 times in the street outside the victim’s home — over “rumors” that the killer was an undercover cop.

Mark Bent, 43, was found guilty in December of first-degree murder and felony enhancement for the use of a deadly weapon in the commission of a felony for the September 2023 killing of Nikolas Bird, 23, outside his home in Bonneville County, according to East Idaho News. Bent, who was sentenced Monday, took to Facebook after the fatal shooting to explain why he took Bird’s life, saying it stemmed from online bullying related to his occupation. Bird’s family has denied the bullying accusation and says there’s no evidence to support it.

“I am saddened to say that I have committed some serious crimes today that will put me in jail for the rest of my life or lead to death,” Bent wrote after the shooting, according to prosecutors and East Idaho News. “As some of you know, shortly after I moved to Idaho Falls, I was slandered on Facebook with rumors of me being an Undercover Police Officer. Those rumors were followed by threats, harassment and more slander. Even after the facts were out that I am not a Police Officer of any kind, people still chose to believe it and continue to harass, threaten me and eventually look up where I live and work and post it on the internet.”

Bent was found guilty in December following a week-long jury trial, with prosecutors saying he planned the killing months in advance after being allegedly targeted on Facebook. He claimed during the trial that he blacked out during the shooting.

“This all started from me being involved with a local Facebook group called East Idaho Speedhunters and a car club called The Castaways,” Bent claimed on Facebook. “After being involved with The Castaways for a short time and seeing that they were involved with a lot of illegal activities, I departed from them. Because of that, the rumor of me being an Undercover Police Officer began and even though it seemed to pass, the rumor eventually came back to light.”

According to Bent, people kept posting about him on the Speedhunters page “in a negative way” to the point where he started to think about “attacking on one of the car meets/shows they attend,” East Idaho News reports.

“But my main goal was to kill Nik Bird, the founder of the Castaways that started all of this by spreading rumors,” Bent said. “He also posted where I work. So I told myself that if anything were to happen to my job, I will go after him. Unfortunately for him and his friends, I lost my job recently, so I followed said plans.”

At his sentencing hearing Monday, Bonneville County Prosecutor Randy Neal repeated the word “bang” 17 times to symbolize the amount of times Bird was shot. Bird’s parents gave impact statements during the proceeding, which were reported by East Idaho News. Bent could be seen crying at times.

“Nikolas loved with every fiber of his being,” said Bird’s mother, Tara Withers. “You knew you were loved when you were loved by Nik Bird.”

Describing Bent, Withers said: “Mark took any future Nik would’ve ever had. He will never know what it’s like to be married or to buy his first home. Mark took this away in the most brutal way possible. Mark laid in wait for over an hour to kill Nikolas.”

Bird’s father, Todd Bird, said each day is a “relentless reminder of what we’ve lost” since losing Bent last year.

“Nik’s laughter, his infectious smile, and the warmth of his presence,” Bird said. “And now, I find myself navigating life in a work that feels dark. Daily life is overshadowed by his absence. The joy that was once in our lives has been replaced by all-consuming sadness and longing for my son.”

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Son says he told mom ‘I’m not a murderer’ before slaying

homesafetytechpros — Wed, 15 Jan 2025 02:39:29 +0000

Background: Collin Griffith speaking to cops months before he allegedly killed his mom (WFTX/YouTube). Insets left to right: Collin Griffith and his mother Catherine Griffith, knife used to murder Catherine Griffith (Instagram/Polk County (Fla.) Sheriff’s Office).

A teen accused of stabbing his mom to death in Florida — two years after claiming to kill his dad in self-defense — can be heard talking to his grandmother in a newly-released bodycam video about how he told his mother, “I’m not a murderer,” less than a year before allegedly taking her life.

“I was saying, ‘Mom, I’m not a psychopath,”” Collin Griffith, 17, can be heard telling his grandmother in a bodycam video captured by a deputy with the Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office and released by local Fox affiliate WFTX on Tuesday.

“I’m not a murderer,” he recalled saying to his mother, Catherine Griffith, 39, during a fight they were having in November 2023, which prompted police to be called and led to him being arrested for domestic violence. “I’m just trying to peacefully leave or peacefully coexist. She kept telling me to shut up and shut up, and when I wouldn’t shut up, she hit me.”

Griffith, who is charged with first-degree murder, was in the back of a police car while speaking to his grandmother during the video. He can be heard telling a deputy that he’s “in a constant state of fight or flight” and worried that he may attack his mom.

“If I think she’s going to do something, even if she’s not, I might act,” Griffith says. “I’m not going to, like, go crazy or anything. But I’m not sure, honestly.”

The deputy goes on to ask, “You’re not sure if you’ll hurt your mom?”

Collin replies, “Only if she tries to hurt me.”

Griffith is behind bars in Polk County after allegedly killing his mother on Sept. 8, according to police officials. The slaying took place in a 55-and-over community in Auburndale, some 50 miles east of Tampa, where Griffith’s grandmother is a resident and where the bodycam footage was captured in November 2023.

Griffith allegedly called police after murdering his mom and told a dispatcher that they “had a very long fight and she fell on a knife.” Cops said they found Catherine Griffith stabbed multiple times in the neck. Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said at a press conference in September that her injuries could not have been accidental.

“The medical examiner said it’s just not reasonable or plausible that she died the way that he said she did,” Judd said. “It just didn’t happen.”

In February 2023, Griffith allegedly killed his father in Oklahoma but avoided prosecution after successfully claiming self-defense. When Florida deputies encountered him after his mom’s murder he was allegedly acting “calm, cool, collected,” according to Judd, who said that Griffith showed “zero remorse.”

“He looked the deputy in the eye and said: ‘I know my rights,” Judd recalled Griffith saying. “‘I want an attorney.’”

Griffith’s grandmother can be heard telling police in the bodycam video from November 2023 that the teen didn’t want to live with his mother anymore before she was killed.

“Collin did not want to come back home,” she tells a deputy. “And I said, ‘You don’t have a choice, you have to go back home.’ And he said, ‘No, I want foster care,’ and even the corporal said that foster care isn’t good for you. You have issues you need to work on.”

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Man gets life for ‘execution’ slaying of teen he ‘catfished’

homesafetytechpros — Sat, 06 Apr 2024 10:39:41 +0000

Jakari D. Webb, right, killed Telan K. Mann, left. Webb was immediately sentenced to life in prison without parole. (Victim’s photo from his obituary; suspect’s mug shot from prosecutors)

A Florida man was sentenced to life in a “catfishing” scheme to lure out and kill a 19-year-old gay man because he thought the victim had been spreading rumors that he was a homosexual.

Jakari D. Webb, 21, was found guilty of first-degree murder with a firearm in the killing of Telan K. Mann, 19. Webb was immediately sentenced to life in prison without parole.

“The defendant’s execution of our victim was a classic example of premeditation,” State Attorney R.J. Larizza said about the case in a statement. “He lay in wait, armed with a semi-automatic handgun. The fact that he shot our victim nine times leaves no doubt that his sole intention was murder.”

Webb’s defense attorney said the authorities could not link Webb to the murder, the Daytona Beach News-Journal reported.

But through court documents and testimony from investigators, authorities said they linked the defendant’s cellphone to the murder weapon, the victim and the homicide, and video surveillance tracked the defendant arriving and running away from the crime scene to a home, according to court documents.

Mann was killed on June 23, 2022. Officers patrolling an area near Oak Tree Circle and Forest Glen Boulevard in Daytona Beach heard gunshots and found Mann’s bullet-riddled body on a sidewalk in a pool of blood just before 2 a.m. Police said six empty shell casings lying around the victim gave the appearance the suspect was either with the victim or had been waiting for the victim before the shooting. Webb was arrested days later.

An affidavit showed a text thread between Webb and Mann to meet up — the victim’s final moments. Video footage showed Webb kneeling behind a grass hill at the corner of Oak Tree and Forest Glen, concealing himself from the victim, the affidavit said.

Video shows the victim walking around the small grass hill and the defendant firing multiple shots at him before fleeing. Detectives said they found video surveillance of the defendant running through the city of Daytona Beach Public Works parking lots and video showing him shirtless, holding a light-colored sweater and a black shirt, and hiding in bushes on the property.

In a Ring doorbell video, he was seen running into a yard, hiding behind an RV and then reemerging and ducking into a wood line as a vehicle passed, the document said.

After his arrest, Webb told investigators a shifting story about his whereabouts at the time of the murder, court documents said. When a detective confronted him about his inconsistencies and said police had video tracking his whereabouts, Webb pretended not to know what the detective was talking about.

“But after further interviewing,” the affidavit said, “Webb admitted to shooting Telan Mann and claimed it to be self-defense due to Telan Mann attacking him with a knife.”

Webb said he took the knife after he shot Mann before admitting the victim did not have a knife, the affidavit said.

Webb admitted to talking to Mann online since February 2022 through a fake Instagram account, court documents said describing the “catfishing” scheme. Webb also told police that Mann started saying Webb was gay and that some people began to believe it, the documents said.

“So Webb advised he created the fake Instagram to get back at Telan Mann,” the affidavit said.

He said the shooting was an accident and admitted the 9 mm handgun found underneath a basketball hoop was the firearm used to kill him, court documents said.

Mann’s obituary said he tried to live a life with peace and love.

“He loved people and the need to feel loved, he was always smiling, cheerful and was all about family,” the obit said.

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