POLK COUNTY MAN CONVICTED OF FIRST-DEGREE MURDER
Polk County Man, Elijah Stansell, was Convicted by a Polk County Jury on June 17th of First-Degree Murder.
Stansell, along with three other co-defendants, drove to the victim’s home to confront her son. When the victim returned home, she confronted the defendant who was driving the getaway van. As he was fleeing the area, the defendant drove his van directly towards the victim; severely injuring her. The victim subsequently died from her injuries. Stansell will be sentenced later this year to a mandatory life in prison sentence. State Attorney Brian Haas thanks Assistant State Attorney Bonde Johnson and the Polk County Sheriff’s Office for their work on this case.
Stansell will be sentenced later this year to a mandatory life sentence in prison.
Follow up article after arrests December 1, 2020:
Today, Sheriff Judd announced that 18-year-old Elijah Stansell is being charged with first degree murder in the death of 52-year-old Suzette Penton of Polk City. He has been in the Polk County Jail since November 9th for attempted felony murder, 3 counts contributing to the delinquency of a minor, burglary with assault, and lewd & lascivious battery on a minor. He was being held on no bond for the attempted felony murder charge, which is now being upgraded to first degree murder.
You can hear Sheriff Judd’s comments on our Facebook pagewww.facebook.com/polkcountysheriff.
Elijah, driving a church van belonging to his father’s church, intentionally ran over and critically injured Ms. Penton on November 9, 2020. The van had 3 other teens inside – they have all been charged as adults, with attempted felony murder and burglary with assault.
Ms. Penton succumbed to her injuries on November 25, 2020.
Original Article Here November 10, 2020:
Four teenagers from the Winter Haven/Auburndale area have been charged with attempted murder after purposely running over the mother of another teen with whom they had an ongoing dispute.
According to the affidavits, deputies responded to the teenaged victim’s home in Polk City around 2:50 p.m. on Monday, November 9, 2020, and found an adult victim critically injured after being run over by a van. The known suspects fled the scene but the suspect vehicle information was quickly BOLO’ed (broadcast over the radio as “be on the lookout”) and located by responding deputies and Auburndale Police Officers.
During the investigation, deputies learned that 18-year-old Elijah Stansell brought three friends – 16-year-old Raven Sutton, 15-year-old Kimberly Stone, and 14-year-old Hannah Eubank – to the victim’s house to “handle” an ongoing dispute (romantic in nature). The suspects banged on the victim’s front door, but the victim came out of the side door and into the carport to see who was there. The group of suspects ran to the carport, where Stansell physically attacked him. The victim retreated into his home, followed by Stansell and Sutton. At that time, the victim’s mom came home, and the suspects ran off.
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