LAKE CITY, Fla. — Jury selection has wrapped up for one of the three people charged in the death of 12-year-old Mariah Smith in Lake City.
Smith was found shot and killed inside her home two years ago on August 24, 2023.
Jayden Burch, who was 15 years old at the time, is being tried as an adult for second-degree murder and two counts of attempted second-degree murder.
Investigators say Burch and two other teenagers fired into the house in retaliation for a fight that happened earlier in the day at Columbia County High School.
The Lake City Police Department arrested Burch, then 14-year-old Jatarious Fluellen II, and then 17-year-old Matthew Rice in connection to Smith’s murder.
All three are being tried as adults.
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Chris Carson is a defense attorney not affiliated with the case. He tells Action News Jax that seeing juveniles tried as adults is not something he sees every day.
“If it is in fact an egregious case, and certainly in a situation where a 12-year-old is deceased that may well qualify, then the state attorney’s office definitely does have the power to do it,” said Carson. “They don’t do it in every case, but they do do it in a decent number of cases.”
Opening statements in Burch’s trial begin Tuesday at 9 am in Columbia County.
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