Murder charge dropped against boyfriend, new details emerge in Jacksonville woman's death
The boyfriend charged with the July 12 death of 23-year-old Beverly Ann Febres, whose body was found in Marco Lake, has now been cleared of that murder charge, according to Times-Union partner First Coast News.
Dedric Jaquan Rashan Wesley, 26, was originally arrested in August. He pleaded guilty Monday to evidence tampering and giving false information to police. He was sentenced to time served and was due to be released Tuesday.
A condition of his probation is that he must provide truthful testimony against Kamaree Phillip Singleton, 20, and Corey Devin Ellis, 27, others involved in the case.
According to a motion to dismiss, the charge was dropped because of new revelations provided by Singleton and Ellis.
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Singleton, although not formally charged with murder, is now accused of shooting Febres and getting help from Ellis to dump Febres' body and abandon her vehicle.
Singleton was arrested in a separate July 17 case on drug and alcohol charges and was still in jail. He has been ruled mentally incompetent and ordered to a forensic treatment facility, according to court records.
He will have another competency hearing in March. Until he is deemed competent, he cannot be formally charged with the crime.
Ellis was arrested in August on two counts of tampering with evidence. He is awaiting trial.
What happened the night of July 12?
He told investigators that he, Wesley, Febres and another woman were at Singleton’s home on Amazon Avenue the night of her death, according to the motion for dismissal. Febres and the woman got into a physical altercation that was broken up.
But she then retrieved a gun from her vehicle and came back and fired one shot that hit Singleton in the stomach, according to Ellis in the motion. She fled in her vehicle, and Wesley was told to leave. About 10 minutes later Febres returned, and Singleton went outside with his firearm. Ellis said he heard two shots and saw the vehicle rolling to a stop and Singleton said he shot her. They then got rid of the body and vehicle, according to the document.
Wesley, who had left on foot, later corroborated the account although he said he had flagged down a ride and didn’t see Febres get shot.
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Wesley had been arrested that month after detectives learned he had gone to T-Mobile to get a new cellphone and told the manager his girlfriend had gone crazy and stole his phone, so he wanted to suspend his account, according to an arrest report. But her cellphone was found at the scene and had a recent location of 8100 Alderman, which is where Wesley lived.
He initially downplayed their relationship to police and said she had come over at 5 p.m. July 11 and they hung out in her car for a couple of hours until he left to drop off his child, according to the report. He said he did not go to the San Marco area where her body was found.
On Oct. 3 Singleton confirmed for detectives what happened and that Febres was shot when she returned looking for Wesley, according to the motion for dismissal.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Murder charge dropped against boyfriend in Jacksonville woman's death
