Florida man convicted, sentenced to life in prison for killing ex-girlfriend's daughter

A jury took about 30 minutes on Monday to convict Robert Kern Jr. of first-degree felony murder for killing his then-girlfriend's 16-year-old daughter in 2018 and leaving her body in a wooded area in DeLand.

On April 13, 2018, a Friday, Kern was supposed to drive Justis Marie Garrett to Mount Dora High School after she missed her school bus. Garrett had lived in New Smyrna Beach until moving to Sorrento several months earlier.

But instead of taking her to school, Kern, 43, killed and raped her, Assistant State Attorney Megan Upchurch, who prosecuted the case along with Assistant State Attorney Jason Lewis, told jurors during her closing arguments on Monday.

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“Robert Kern on April 13, 2018, kidnapped and raped and murdered Justis Garrett and the state has proven that beyond a reasonable doubt,” Upchurch said.

After the verdict was read and the jury filed out of the courtroom, Kern stood and faced Circuit Judge Dawn Nichols, who sentenced him to the mandatory life in prison without parole for first-degree felony murder. She sentenced him to a concurrent five years in prison on a charge of tampering with evidence.

The girl's family hugged in the courtroom after the verdict and sentence.

Kern did not testify and his defense attorneys did not call any witnesses. Kern did shake his head several times during the closing arguments by Upchurch and then Lewis. The prosecutors' closing arguments lasted about 90 minutes.

Upchurch juxtaposed two pictures of Garrett for the jury of eight women and four men. On one half of the screen, a picture showed a smiling, teenage girl. On the other side of the screen was a picture of her partially decomposed, skeletal remains.

The pants she was wearing were pulled down to her Nike shoes. Her bra and hoodie had been pulled up to her neck. The hoodie's drawstring was cinched beneath her skull.

Garrett frequently used her cellphone and social media, but on April 13, 2018, the last time she used her phone was at 6:48 a.m. when she posted a picture of herself to Snapchat.

Once she got in Kern's blue Ford Explorer, Kern drove her toward DeLand, not her school.

At 7:26 a.m. on April 13, 2018, Kern sent a text to Garrett’s mother, Danielle Pratt, saying he had dropped Garrett off at school. But by then Kern had taken control of the teenager through either violence or drugs, Upchurch said.

“We know he’s nowhere near Mount Dora High School,” Upchurch said.

Experts testified that Garrett's remains showed she had a small fracture on her nose.

Once in DeLand, Garrett’s phone is stationary from 8:12 a.m. to 9:17 a.m. in the area where her body was later found near a dirt trail in a heavily wooded area off Service and Gasline roads.

“We know that at this point she is raped. We know she’s killed,” Upchurch said.

After Justis Garrett's death

Soon after, Garrett’s phone starts moving west back toward Sorrento. A track of Kern’s cellphone on that day was not available. But at 9:52 a.m., Kern’s phone received an incoming call and for that brief moment, investigators could see its location was tracking along with Garrett’s phone, both in downtown DeLand.

Two video cameras at the former Ritter’s Towne Pharmacy and a Dollar General, both along State Road 44 in DeLand, captured videos of Kern’s SUV coinciding with the time that Garrett’s phone was tracked in the area, prosecutors said.

At the time, Kern was busy concealing the crime, Upchurch said.

“He is trying to figure out what to do with her backpack, he's just killed her,” Upchurch said.

Kern drove to the area of Mount Dora High School, powered down Garrett's phone and got rid of it, Upchurch said.

Later, when Garrett does come home after school, her mother wanted to call police but Kern discouraged her from doing so, according to Upchurch.

When the teenager still doesn’t show, Kern claims that she told him that she didn’t want to go to school and wanted to hang out with friends, Upchurch said.

“He is buying time for that body to decompose,” Upchurch said.

Investigators were able to obtain a track for Kern's phone on Monday, April 16, 2018, which showed he returned to the site were the teenager's body still remained undiscovered. Kern stayed there from 8:05 a.m. to 9:19 a.m.

Upchurch said Kern spent that time covering up the crime, pouring bleach on the lower part of Garrett's body. Analysts found signs that bleach had been poured on her pants and shoes.

Garrett’s body was discovered by a member of a tracking group on April 18, 2018, which was in the area for a social gathering.

Robert Kern Jr.'s fake Instagram account

The following day, DeLand Police issued a press release about the body. That same day, Kern deleted his Gmail account, the same account he used to set up a fake Instagram account in which he pretended to be an 18-year-old man.

Kern used the fake account to message Garrett on her Instagram account. She never responded to him.

“You are a cutie. How old are you?” read a message on Feb. 10, 2018, from Kern.

"You got a BF," meaning boyfriend, on Feb. 10, 2018.

Kern messaged “Talk to me beautiful,” on Feb. 11, 2018, to Garrett.

Upchurch reminded jurors of testimony that Kern had performed internet searches in the months leading up Garrett's murder about knock-out drugs and the best drugs for making someone unconscious.

Kern searched for several sites with titles about fathers having sex with daughters, she said.

The phone also showed a search on Feb. 22, 2018, for a sexy brunette being forced to have sex in the woods.

Garrett's mother had initially told investigators that she was with Kern when he dropped off her daughter. She did so because Kern had a suspended driver’s license and she didn't want him to get in trouble, prosecutors said.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement scheduled an interview with Pratt and Kern on April 29, 2018. Before Kern went to the interview, he did a factory reset on his LG cellphone to erase data, Upchurch said.

Kern and Pratt went to a second interview, traveling separately, the following day with FDLE. But by then Pratt had told FDLE that Kern was actually alone with the teenager on the day he was supposed to drop her off at school.

Kern was also confronted with Garrett’s cellphone location history showing she was nowhere near Mount Dora High School when Kern claimed he had dropped her off.

Kern then changed his story and said he had dropped her off at a street corner not far from her house where she said a friend was supposed to pick her up, Upchurch said.

Kern was represented by Assistant Public Defenders Adam Dala and Cameron Brown. Dala's closing argument lasted about 15 minutes.

Dala said prosecutors did not find any DNA evidence to support their claim of sexual battery. He said they didn't have any evidence showing how Garrett died, whether she was strangled, stabbed or even died of natural causes. He said that no drugs were found in the remains.

Assistant State Attorney Lewis countered that investigators did not have DNA evidence because Garrett's body had been decomposing in the woods where it was also subject to animals. Lewis said the medical examiner said it had been a homicide, not a natural death.

"The evidence in this case is overwhelming and the overwhelming evidence in this case shows that Robert Kern, sitting right here," Lewis said as he walked over to the defense table and pointed toward Kern, "is the one who murdered Justis. He raped her. He kidnapped her. He took her into the woods. Every piece of evidence points to that."

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Florida man convicted, sentenced to life for killing Justis Garrett