Teen Killer Doesn’t Realize He Was Caught On Camera

🔪 The Darkest of Intentions: The Murder of Dwight “DJ” Grant

The humid October air of Miramar, Florida, usually carried the sounds of suburban life—laughter, distant traffic, the rhythmic hum of air conditioning units. But on Sunday, October 17th, 2021, a silence began to settle that was chillingly unnatural. It was the night Dwight “DJ” Grant, a calm, respectful, and quiet 18-year-old senior at Miramar High School, vanished. His world, a predictable circle of school, friends, and gaming, was about to be obliterated by a plan of calculated teenage rage.

DJ’s mother, Molen Emil, a nurse in the Memorial Health Care System, was the first to feel the unnerving shift. Her son was a creature of habit, always checking in, morning or night. When Monday dawned and DJ had neither returned home nor called, panic set in. By Monday morning, his absence from school was noted. This wasn’t a kid who skipped out; he was a good kid who didn’t drink, didn’t smoke, and always had a plan. While family and friends frantically canvassed the neighborhood, distributing flyers, the police were already beginning their search.

🔎 The Frayed Edge of the Truth

The initial police investigation led officers through the crowded high school hallways, looking for anyone who might have seen DJ. Amidst the students, they found a nervous girl, clearly distressed, who spoke about DJ’s habit of checking on her because he understood her anxiety and depression. She hadn’t seen him since Friday. Every friend they spoke to confirmed the same terrifying reality: DJ had simply disappeared. His sudden silence, in a life defined by routine, was not just unusual—it was terrifying.

The search continued to widen, but it was back at the Sherman Circle North apartment complex, right where DJ lived, that the search came to a horrifying stop. On Tuesday, October 19th, around 2 p.m., police canvassing the area noticed a bloodstained sidewalk. It was a trail that led them straight into the bushes near one of the apartment buildings, where they found the body of a young man. The victim had been stabbed twice—once in the neck and once in the chest—and left in the undergrowth like discarded refuse. It was DJ Grant, found heartbreakingly close to home. A knife was recovered in the grass nearby. The peaceful neighborhood was shattered; the mystery had turned into a full-blown murder investigation.

Back at the Miramar police headquarters, the community rallied, desperate to help. In a moment that would crack the case wide open, a woman walked into the lobby. She was holding her teenage niece’s phone, which held a window into a private group chat. The texts within, full of careless teenage bravado and dark rumors, pointed straight to three names: 17-year-old Andre Dexter Clemens, 16-year-old Jasine Smith, and 17-year-old Christy Parissian. The police now had not only a victim but a roadmap to the suspects.

🛑 Questioning the Accomplices

Investigators moved fast. They tracked down Christy Parissian and arrived at her house, where a search warrant was requested. Christie’s mother, confused and caught off guard, was held outside the residence while officers secured the scene. Despite not yet having a warrant, and infringing on her rights by denying her request to retrieve her phone to call her sister, the mother eventually shared a voice message from her daughter. Christy had messaged her mom, saying the police had taken her to the station for a statement and taken her phone.

This detail was concerning, as Christy was a minor, 17, and her mother had the right to be present during any questioning. The police had already begun questioning Christy without an adult present, crossing a significant procedural line.

Next, the officers found Jesine Smith. Late that night, around 11 p.m., they questioned her outside her family’s apartment, with her mother present. Jasine’s initial story was that she was told to trap DJ in the stairwell as backup for a “fight” that Andre Clemens was planning, supposedly over a girl who was “messing with somebody else’s girl.” She claimed she was instructed to push DJ and keep him in a corner.

Jesine began to describe Andre as the mastermind. He had allegedly told her to dress in all black, wear clothes she didn’t care about, put on gloves and a do-rag, and that he knew the layout of DJ’s complex. Jasine explained that she, Andre, and Christy had left together after telling her mother they were going for a walk. She confessed that Christy’s role was to lure DJ out—a planned seduction—while she and Andre waited.

As the interview continued, Jasine’s composure began to crack. She admitted to her mother that she knew her involvement meant she was an accomplice and had already been preparing herself for the worst. She recounted the confrontation where Andre vented his anger, telling DJ, “You know what I have to do, right? That I have to hurt you. Like, I have to get you back for what you did.” DJ begged for his life, promising to stay away and not tell anyone.

⚔️ The Weapon and the Lie

The true turning point in Jasine’s confession was the introduction of the murder weapon. She described Andre asking for the weapon after telling DJ he was going to kill him. Jasine said she handed it over, still hoping it was a joke.

Jesine described the gruesome final moments. Andre pushed DJ into a corner. As DJ lay there, pinned by Andre and with Jasine holding his legs and under-torso, he kept slipping in and out of consciousness. In a final, heartbreaking plea, DJ begged his killer to make it quick, saying, “You’re going to kill me, just choke me out or like end it. Do something.” Andre ignored the pleas and proceeded to stab him again.

The biggest crack in Jasine’s story appeared when the detective pressed her on the weapon:

DETECTIVE: The weapon that he that Andre was using, he used it to st the boy. I’m assuming it’s it’s a knife then that he had. There’s a knife in the area longer. JASINE: Sword. DETECTIVE: A longer what? JASINE: A sword.

A sword. This detail dramatically changed the perception of the crime. It was a massive piece of evidence that would be impossible for Jasine and Christy to have missed. Jasine, clearly realizing the gravity, immediately tried to distance herself, claiming she didn’t actually see the sword, only the bag it was in, or that she wasn’t paying attention. The detectives knew this was a lie, as the sheer size of the weapon meant the plan was premeditated murder from the start, not an escalated “fight.”

🔥 The Perfect Crime Unravels

Jesine further implicated herself when she confessed to helping move DJ’s body: “I had helped Andre move him a certain direction… and into the bushes.” She also admitted that Andre had told her while they were planning everything that this would be the first person he had ever killed. This crucial detail contradicted her earlier narrative of being unaware and thinking it was “just a fight.” Jasine Smith was now solidly implicated, having known the plan was to murder DJ Grant from the beginning.

Following the murder, the teens set out to cover their tracks. They stuffed their bloody clothes and weapons into a bag. They chose a wide-open grassy area near Jasine’s complex, in plain sight of residents, to set a bonfire. They poured gasoline over the clothes and watched them burn.

It was this act of arrogance that finally brought in the eyewitnesses. A security guard spotted the fire, and a resident also watched the entire scene unfold. The resident described Andre circling the fire, throwing more gasoline on the flames, and the two girls (Jasmine and Christy) standing nearby. She specifically remembered the “chubby girl” (Jesine) with noticeable braids. The witness was unnerved not just by the fire, but by the teens’ strange energy: “You could feel the traumatization from them… but you could also feel like they they had the energy of the way of thinking like he deserved it.”

⚖️ The Inescapable Truth and Sentencing

The detectives seized the teens’ phones, and the evidence was overwhelming. Security camera footage confirmed the three teens—dressed head-to-toe in black—approaching the stairwell, and another camera captured them dragging DJ Grant’s body toward the bushes.

The final nail in Jasine’s self-defense came from a text message, shattering her claim of believing it was “just a fight.” On October 3rd, before the murder, Jasine had texted: “I love your opinion and all, but it’s spooky season, and my toes will be red to represent the blood I be stepping on after I viciously [kill] someone to death.”

Within days, all three teens were detained and charged as adults:

Jasmine Smith and Christy Parissian were charged with tampering with evidence, conspiracy to commit murder, and second-degree murder. Both ultimately pleaded guilty and were sentenced to 25 years in prison, followed by 10 years of probation.

Andre Clemens, the planner and the one who delivered the fatal blow with the sword, faced the most serious charge: first-degree premeditated murder. He pleaded guilty to murder, tampering with evidence, and conspiracy to commit murder, and was sentenced to 40 years in prison, followed by lifetime probation.

The murder of Dwight “DJ” Grant was not a fight gone wrong, but a calculated act of vicious teenage revenge over a petty grudge, executed with chilling coldness and a literal sword. Three young lives, including DJ’s, were irrevocably destroyed by a split-second decision to follow unchecked anger. They traded their futures for a grudge, and are left now with decades to sit with the weight of what they did.