Alexander Bedford

Timeline

• April 8, 2005 — Alexander Bedford pleaded guilty to killing his mother, Juanita Bedford, when he was 14; he faced sentencing in June.
• June 27, 2005 — Alexander Bedford was sentenced to 10 years in state custody under a plea agreement.
• June 29, 2005 — Alexander Bedford was described as having received 10 years in prison for fatally stabbing his mother after she threatened to beat him over a bad middle-school report card.
• June 30, 2001 — Alexander Bedford was scheduled to be arraigned Monday before Miami-Dade County Circuit Judge Gill Freeman; a grand jury returned an indictment charging him with first-degree murder as he was to be tried as an adult.
• February 6, 2001 — Bedford plunged a seven-inch steak knife into his mother’s chest.
• 1999 — Lionel Tate, one of two other South Florida teens charged with first-degree murder, killed a 6-year-old playmate at age 12.
• 2000 — Nathaniel Brazill (Nathan Brazil) was indicted on a first-degree murder charge for a 2000 shooting of teacher Barry Grunow; later a jury convicted him of second-degree murder in May.
• 1999 to 2001 — Three teenagers were charged with first-degree murder in South Florida.

Background

Alexander Bedford was 14 when he killed his mother, Juanita Bedford, in 2001 and was later sentenced as an adult. At the time of his mother’s death, Bedford attended Westview Middle School and was described as being mentally limited by his lawyer at the time of the killing.

The case involved other South Florida teen murder cases from 1999 to 2001 that received national attention: Lionel Tate and Nathan Brazil were convicted in those matters, while Bedford avoided a major murder trial.

Bedford’s maternal grandmother, Maddy Green, did not want to comment. Bedford’s mother had distanced herself from her family while living with a girlfriend and her son. Bedford was described as an only child, and the sentencing included consideration of evidence about depression, counseling, and psychiatric follow-up.

The offence

Alexander Bedford stabbed his mother, Juanita Bedford, to death in 2001 when he was 14. Police found an extension cord by the mother’s body and her son’s eighth-grade report card on a table in the apartment.

Bedford acted after his mother told him to get an extension cord so she could whip him. Bedford said he attacked her with a 7-inch kitchen knife after she threatened to whip him for getting bad grades, and another account described the knife as a seven-inch steak knife.

Bedford passed a note in his middle school classroom asking “how do you kill somebody” hours before attacking his mother in their apartment in 2001.

Before the killing, Bedford ironed his mother’s clothes and laid them out for her, as he did nearly every night, and his lawyer said he doted on his mother despite the abuse described in court.

Hours before the stabbing, Bedford was said to be taking steps in his home life and was described as being shaped by pressure and alleged fear.

Investigation

Police initially received a story from Bedford that an intruder wearing dark pants and a white shirt stabbed his mother through the heart with a seven-itch (seven-inch) kitchen knife. Bedford’s story soon unraveled and he was arrested at a relative’s home the next day.

Afterward, Bedford told detectives that he had planned the murder of his mother that day as he sat in class and that he hoped with her death he could live with his aunt.

There was a reference to a Department of Children and Families investigation of an abuse complaint against Bedford’s mother at the request of his school, with the family attending one counseling session.

The Department of Children and Families would not confirm whether it received reports of abuse at the home. Stephen Harper, the former head of the juvenile unit in the public defenders’ office, said there is a history of abuse in almost all cases of a child killing a parent.

A home video taken by Juanita Bedford’s girlfriend, Laverne Demon, showed 13-year-old Alexander dressing as a girl and being coaxed to dance “like some stripper in a nightclub.”

Prosecutors later conceded in April when they reduced the charge from first-degree to second-degree murder that the mother’s “character and parenting skills would become a centerpiece of the trial,” and prosecutors wanted to avoid that for the family’s sake.

Arrest

Bedford was arrested at a relative’s home the next day after his initial intruder story unraveled.

Trial

Alexander Bedford was originally charged with first-degree murder and was to be tried as an adult. The grand jury returned the indictment for first-degree murder and Bedford was scheduled to be arraigned before Miami-Dade County Circuit Judge Gill Freeman.

Prosecutor Leon Botkin described that it took four months for the prosecutor’s office to present the case to a grand jury, stating that “We took our time because both sides were looking at things that might justify keeping him in the juvenile system,” and that a trial could include arguments about why he should remain in the juvenile system.

Bedford pleaded guilty to second-degree murder earlier in the year; the guilty plea came on a day when the defense was going to try to have Bedford’s confession thrown out, based on whether he knowingly waived his rights in 2001 for reasons of youth and intellect.

Both sides agreed that Bedford, who was taking 12th-grade classes behind bars, was smart and alert enough to legitimately enter a guilty plea.

Prosecutors were prepared to show a home video in which Bedford “hammed it up for the camera to show that he was a bright 14-year-old,” but both sides agreed he could plead.

Sentencing

Alexander Bedford was sentenced to 10 years in state custody under a plea agreement on June 27, 2005.

At sentencing, Mattie Mathis asked for mercy and said:

“To me, he’s like my own,”

Mathis told Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Mary Barzee before Bedford was sentenced:

“I lost my daughter. I am not going to lose my grandson. I think he’s really been through enough.”

Although Mathis and her other daughters asked for probation for Bedford, Barzee sentenced Bedford to 10 years in prison—the lowest possible sentence under the plea deal between prosecutors and Bedford’s lawyer—followed by 10 years of probation.

Bedford had already served more than four years of his sentence awaiting trial, and he had credit for time served with no disciplinary problems in prison.

Defense attorney Roderick Vereen said he expected Bedford to be released in about 3 1/2 years.

Bedford’s probation required him to serve 10 years probation, get psychological counseling, and take prescribed medications. The judge noted he was currently being treated for depression and that he was sexually assaulted in custody. The judge also said Bedford had gone from having Ds and Fs to having a 3.54 grade point average in 12th grade classes.

The judge said Bedford was “punished him too harshly and perhaps even criminally in the hopes of making him a better person,” describing Juanita’s approach. The judge also said the expected beating “did not justify him stabbing her to death.”

Prosecutors asked for something near the high end of an agreed 10- to 20-year range, and relatives begged for a sentence with no prison time.

Bedford apologized before sentencing and choked back sobs, saying:

“Your honor, I love my mom so much, I really do,”
“I’m so sorry.”

Bedford later said, after his relatives spoke:

“I loved my mother so much,”

He inhaled deeply to stifle tears and continued:

“I have been through a lot of pressure, a lot of pain.”

Assistant State Attorney Dan Dudis said the abuse allegations against Juanita had been exaggerated, and he argued:

“I think it is unfortunate that someone who was brutally murdered has had her reputation dragged through the mud from beyond the grave,”

Dudis also said Juanita worked two jobs to buy a condominium in a better neighborhood.

When he is released, Bedford was described as needing to attend school or work full-time and to undergo psychological evaluation or treatment as part of his probation.

The sentencing included statements from mental health experts Dr. Jane Ansley and Dr. Sonya Ruiz. Dr. Ansley said:

“The recommendation for psychotherapy is really critical to whether or not this young man is going to make it as a regular citizen,”

Dr. Sonya Ruiz said:

“To this day, (Bedford) still feels somewhat resentful about his mother paying more attention to others than to him and mistreating him, and he tends to brood over that,”

Prosecutors and defense referenced Bedford’s confession and related legal arguments regarding whether his rights were knowingly waived in 2001.

Appeals

The narrative referenced other cases’ appeal histories and outcomes, including Lionel Tate being “in jail again in Fort Lauderdale following two arrests after his murder conviction was reversed on appeal,” and being set free after pleading guilty to a reduced charge. Nathan Brazil’s case described him as serving a 28-year sentence after pleading in a different procedural history.

Outcome

Alexander Bedford pleaded guilty to charges that he stabbed his mother, Juanita Bedford, to death in 2001 when he was 14. He was sentenced to 10 years in state custody under a plea agreement on June 27, 2005.

Aftermath

Bedford was described as taking 12th-grade classes behind bars and having achieved a 3.5 grade-point average in jail at the time of reporting.

Bedford’s mother told the judge she did not know about the abuse. Her statement included:

“I don’t know why she did the things that she did to this child,”

She added:

“A mother is someone who is supposed to protect their children, love them, protect them, spend time with their children. My daughter didn’t do that. Why, I don’t know.”

Bedford’s sister, Gloria Murray, said Bedford begged her several times to let him move in, and she refused without realizing he was being hurt. Murray described the victim as:

“quick to anger and fight. ... She was tough.”

Friends said the victim was having trouble disciplining her son. The girlfriend was described as estimating that some beatings lasted 20 minutes and asking the woman to stop but not reporting the whippings; the girlfriend also dressed the boy in drag and videotaped him dancing while his mother was at work.

Prosecutors conceded that reducing the charge avoided focusing the trial on Juanita Bedford’s conduct and parenting skills.