DELTONA, Florida — Volusia County Sheriff’s deputies say that, angry at their treatment, three teenage girls living in a group home in Deltona are facing some extremely serious criminal charges after they were accused Monday night of plotting to kill their house parent. The plot wasn’t put into action, and the intended victim wasn’t harmed.
Volusia County Sheriff’s deputies were dispatched to the group home on Courtland Boulevard in response to a 911 call at 9:26 p.m. A total of four teenage girls live at the home, but one wasn’t involved in the plot. The other three — Christina Beckner and Quandaleesha Johnson, both 15, and 13-year-old Marliesia Ortiz — were reported to be out of control, turning over furniture and throwing things around the house. And one of the girls, Johnson, was twirling a small garden shovel. T he 24-year-old house parent, in fear for her safety, locked herself in her room. The girls, apparently angry at the house rules and for being disciplined by having their phone privileges revoked, started screaming and throwing objects at the bedroom door in an effort to coax the house parent out of the room. According to investigators, the three had hatched a scheme to lure the victim out of her room and then jump on her back and snap her neck. If that didn’t kill her, they were going to stab her with the blade on the garden shovel and then dump her body in a park.
The girl who wasn’t involved overheard the plot and revealed it to deputies. During interviews with deputies, two of the girls were uncooperative and kept changing their stories. But eventually, details of the plan came out during questioning. One of the girls said she wanted to get back at the house parent because she didn’t think it was fair that she had the authority to make up the house rules.
Deputies charged all three girls with conspiracy to commit murder. Additionally, Beckner and Ortiz were charged with criminal mischief and Johnson was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. All three were transported to the Volusia Regional Juvenile Detention Center in Daytona Beach.