Three suspects are accused of robbery and murder just to make a rap video.
"The violence has got to stop with losing our youth, this is not right," Sherri Macklin said. "You want something, you need to start going to school and get an education and work for it. Don't think you can take a quick hit on somebody."
Macklin's son, Tyler, was shot and killed inside his Winter Haven home on Wednesday night. Just hours earlier they were talking on the phone.
"He told me he loved me and I told him I loved him and we always did," Macklin said.
Macklin said her son recently won some money playing the lottery and posted about paying things off and buying new electronics on Facebook. She wishes her son had never posted anything to let others know he might have had extra money.
"They are an informal rap group with no name. I certainly can give them a name today. How 'bout
The Jailhouse Bunch?" Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said.
Judd said the trio wanted one thing: “flash cash,” or money they could flaunt in a rap music video.
"So they needed some ‘flash cash’ was there was their terminology and Dylan was
said, hey, I just bought some marijuana from a guy couple weeks ago. He'll be an 'easy lick,’” Judd said.
Their easy target, the sheriff said, was 21-year-old Tyler Macklin, who they knew had drugs and cash and wouldn't fight back.
Deputies say 18-year-old Jonathan Felix, nicknamed “Killa,” and 18-year-old Joseph Brandon Jr., nicknamed “Waxx,” kicked in the door on Tangerine Parkway in Winter Haven and shot the victim for the cash in his wallet.
They also say 21-year-old Dylan Kindred helped plan the robbery and drove the car.
"Three hundred dollars," said neighbor Kay White-Sutton in a soft voice, then shook her head.
"That is a tragedy because when we heard what was going on, all I could think of
was he's somebody's somebody," she said.
A YouTube video viewed by the Sheriff's Office shows the trio performing at Ybor City's Club Skye.
All three suspects have criminal records.
"Jonathan Felix is only 21 years of age. You ready for this?
He's already been in state prison four years of his life," Judd said.
The sheriff says the trio's rap career is over.
"They don't dance very well and it's interesting to me they are now experiencing an environment where there's no rap music at all so any dancing they do, one of them will have to be humming, while the other one's dancing," he said.
Though Kindred has not been charged with murder, just conspiracy to commit robbery, deputies say the investigation is still open.
For Tyler's funeral arrangements clickhere.
