NEICA MARIE GIBBS - 14 yo (2008) - Fort Lauderdale FL

A Fort Lauderdale teen who confessed to strangling a 14-year-old girl
after they had sex and she made fun of him for being a virgin was
sentenced to 20 years in prison Monday after admitting to the judge in a
soft voice that he was guilty.Jason Hartley, now 17, had
initially pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder, which carries a
maximum penalty of life in prison. He changed his plea Monday morning,
and under terms of a deal agreed to by prosecutors, Broward Circuit
Judge Cynthia Imperato sentenced him to the prison term, to be followed
by five years of probation.Hartley confessed to strangling Neica
Marie Gibbs, a fellow middle school student, on June 28, 2008, then
wrapping her body in a blue tarp and stashing it next to a garbage bin
less than 90 feet from his home in the Azalea Trailer Colony in Fort
Lauderdale.Gibbs' body rotted beneath a heap of garbage for three
weeks before a rank smell led two women to discover the Sunrise
Middle School student's corpse.Barbara Queer, Gibbs'
grandmother, reported her granddaughter missing after she did not return
from a sleepover in the same trailer park.In a videotaped
confession to police, the pudgy, sobbing boy, then 15, said he had
agreed to pay $50 to Gibbs in exchange for his first sexual encounter.Gibbs
mocked him afterward and turned violent because he didn't have any
money, Hartley said. He accidentally killed her while fighting off her
attack, he told police. According to prosecutor Maria Schneider,
"the totality of the evidence proves this was not an accident."Gibbs'
paternal aunt said Monday that she was disappointed in the sentence
meted out by Imperato."She was just a beautiful kid. I don't know
why he did this to her," said Regina Gibbs, 46, of Fort Lauderdale.
"It's disgusting. It hurts, it really hurts."She said she was glad
to put the ordeal behind her and her family but
resented that Hartley would one day be able to resume his life after
coldly cutting short her young niece's life.Hartley's attorney,
Assistant Public Defender George Reres, lamented seeing one life
forfeited for another. His client, he said, had a long-term crush on the
victim, and came from a troubled family."This was a tragically
confusing and emotional conflict with the young lady," Reres said. "He
came from a situation of hopelessness. There was never any consistency,
there was never any stability, there was violence in the home."Reres
said Hartley's confession was the only evidence prosecutors had against
his client. But fearful that he might be convicted at trial and face a
life sentence, he said Hartley opted for the 20 years and "a future" beyond prison.