NICHOLAS PRESHA and JEREMY STEWART - 16 and 18 yo/ Accused: Jesse Davis - Winter Park FL

Two bodies of two teenage boys were found over the weekend in the Orlando, Florida area. The Winter Park High School students had been reported missing late last week when a bicyclist stumbled upon their burning bodies near a bike trail over the weekend. Police say the bicyclist called 911 and said he thought he saw two smoldering bodies but couldn’t tell if they were human remains or mannequins. Police are investigating the incident as a double homicide.


Jeremy Stewart, 18 (left) and Nicholas 'Nic' Presha, 16 (right) were found murdered and burned.

The teens, Nicholas Presha, 16, and Jeremy Stewart, 18, were described by other students as being “inseparable” and best friends.

The friends had been in recent trouble with law after stealing a Mini Cooper in January in which they eventually crashed into a 7-Eleven store. The teens fled the scene after the crash and were eventually caught by K-9 police dogs. The pair entered into a Teen Court program in order to avoid prosecution in lieu of court supervision.

Shortly before the bodies were found, a fire at a storage unit on the premise of the Sun Bay apartments in the vicinity of where the bodies were found had been reported. Police believe that the storage unit fire is related to the boy’s double homicide but haven’t disclosed the details of the link yet. Witnesses at the apartment building said they heard gun shots the night before the boy’s bodies were found.

According to the Orlando Sentinel, Nicholas Presha is the son of a retired Orange County sheriff’s Capt., Bernie Presha, Capt. Presha who now works as a detective at the Osceola State Attorney’s Office.

http://www.imperfectparent.com/topics/2012/04/19/missing-florida-teens-smoldering-remains-found/

Two men with lengthy criminal histories are facing first-degree-murder charges in the slayings of two Winter Park High School students who were shot and set on fire along Cady Way Trail last month, Orange County Sheriff Jerry Demings announced Friday night.

Jesse Brandon Davis, 30, and Hector Manuel Rodriguez, 31, also are facing charges of kidnapping in the deaths of Nicholas "Nick" Presha, 16, and Jeremy Stewart, 18.

Davis was arrested last month on unrelated charges. Rodriguez was arrested Friday night at about 8:30 at Nob Hill Apartments on Semoran Boulevard and was being interviewed by detectives at the Sheriff's Office late Friday.

Presha and Stewart met Davis and Rodriguez intending to sell them two stolen guns, Demings said. But the men instead robbed the teens and shot them with at least one of the stolen weapons, the sheriff said.

Authorities think the boys stole the guns from vehicles in the Winter Park area.

"The teen victims unfortunately met their demise when they encountered two evil and dangerous criminals," Demings said.

The teens, he said, were shot to death and then set on fire. Nick and Stewart, who were best friends, were missing for about a day.

Stewart's father, James Stewart, said that the arrests brought some relief to his family.

"I'm glad that they have the people that committed the crime," Stewart said. "That's great. I hope there's some justice. There's still a long road ahead."

Nick's father, Bernie Presha, is a retired Orange County sheriff's captain who now works as an investigator at the Orange-Osceola State Attorney's Office. He would not comment.

Rodriguez has a long criminal history that includes arrests on drug, armed-robbery, aggravated-battery and aggravated-assault charges.

At the time of the slayings, Davis was serving three years' probation for attacking a man during a 2008 road-rage incident. Court documents identified Davis as a delusional schizophrenic who had been institutionalized in a mental hospital in 2009.

Davis was arrested two days after the slayings on an unrelated attempted-first-degree-murder charge. He is accused of shooting a man six times during an attempted robbery in early February.

A bicyclist found the teens' burning bodies near a canal along the popular jogging and biking trail in east Orange County early April 15.

The slayings stunned students and others in Winter Park. Friends and family members held vigils, and classmates handed out fliers to raise awareness about the gruesome slayings.

Nick and Stewart were arrested in Winter Park on Jan. 10 on charges of grand theft of a motor vehicle and resisting arrest without violence. Both were charged as juveniles.

The teens stole a neighbor's lime-green convertible Mini Cooper and crashed it into the side of a 7-Eleven on Howell Branch Road with Nick at the wheel, a police report states. Both teens ran and were chased and bitten by a police dog.

The youths entered a Teen Court program, a form of pretrial diversion that allows minors to avoid prosecution if they stay out of trouble, the State Attorney's Office said.

During his news conference, Demings addressed what he called misinformation" by the broadcast media that the case involved a debt over a drug deal and that the gun found on Davis the night of his arrest was used to kill the teenagers. That gun was not the murder weapon, Demings said.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/breakingnews/os-cady-way-arrests-announced-20120511,0,7616992,print.story

Autopsy: Teens found dead on Cady Way Trial were shot in head

Last Updated: Friday, August 10, 2012 @ 11:15AM

ORLANDO -- A newly released report reveals new details about what happened to two Orange County teenagers whose bodies were found on fire along Cady Way Trail in April.

The victims, Nicholas Presha and Jeremy Stewart, both died of gunshot wounds to the head, according to the Orange-Osceola County medical examiner's office.

Autopsy reports released Friday morning said Stewart, 18, was shot once in the head, and the bullet exited through his forehead.

The report also said Presha, 16, was shot three times in the head, with at least one of the gunshots proving to be fatal.

Bicyclists riding along Cady Way Trail on April 15 spotted the teens' remains burning on a remote section of the popular trail.

Two men, Jesse Davis and Hector Rodriguez, have been charged with the teens' murders.

Investigators said they believe the teens were trying to sell stolen guns to them, when the deal went horribly wrong.

http://www.cfnews13.com/content/news/cfnews13/news/article.html/content/news/articles/cfn/2012/8/10/cady_way_autopsy_rep.html?cmpid=twitter

Autopsy shows Cady Way Trail victims had ingested drugs

By Bianca Prieto, Orlando Sentinel
5:53 p.m. EST, August 10, 2012

Two Winter Park High School students who were killed along the Cady Way Trail earlier this year had ingested drugs prior to their deaths, toxicology reports show.

Low level amounts of prescription and illicit drugs, as well as alcohol were found in the blood samples of 16-year-old Nicholas Presha and 18-year-old Jeremy Stewart, according to documents released by the Orange-Osceola State Attorney's Office as part of a public records request

oxicology reports identified Xanex, alcohol and cocaine metabolites — the chemicals left in the body after ingesting cocaine — were found in both teens. Stewart's blood also showed prescription pain killers.

The teens were found shot to death and their bodies set on fire near a canal along the popular biking and jogging trail in Orange County early April 15. Jesse Davis, 30, and Hector Rodriguez, 31, are charged with two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of armed kidnapping. Both are being held without bond at the Orange County Jail.

The teens encountered Davis and Rodriguez at a gas station around midnight, records show. The teens went to eat out to eat and then to Davis' home where the attacks began.

At one point during the night the teens told the men about guns they had in their possession that investigators believe were stolen during car burglaries.

The teens intended to sell the stolen weapons, but the men wanted to rob them. After gaining control of the guns, Davis is accused of ordering them both to strip naked and lie on the floor.

During an interview with police days after the killings, Rodriguez said he gave cocaine and Xanex to the teens when they were bound inside of Davis' home.

Autopsy results show that Stewart was shot once in the back of the head and Nicholas was shot three times, once in the back of the head on twice more on in the face. Neither was alive when their bodies were set on fire.

Davis is expected in court next week for a hearing that will determine if he is competent to proceed with trial.

http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2012-08-10/news/os-cady-way-killing-autopsy-20120810_1_toxicology-nicholas-presha-jesse-davis

‏@MyFoxOrlando
#Fox35 will be STREAMING LIVE JESSE BRANDON DAVIS Psychiatric Competency hearing. http://dlvr.it/213dVp
11:56 AM - 16 Aug 12

(1:30 pm ET)

Live link: http://www.myfoxorlando.com/category/239949/additonal-live-stream

Cady Way Trail murder suspect found competent to stand trial

By Bianca Prieto, Orlando Sentinel
7:25 p.m. EST, September 7, 2012

Jesse Davis, one of the men accused of killing two Winter Park High School students and burning their bodies along Cady Way Trail in April, has been found mentally competent, meaning his prosecution can proceed.

Davis' defense had argued that he was mentally ill, needed hospitalization and therefore could not aid in his own defense. Four of the five doctors who evaluated Davis agreed with the defense, but the fifth found he was able to proceed.

http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2012-09-07/news/os-jesse-davis-cady-way-competent-20120907_1_cady-way-trail-jesse-davis-davis-and-co-defendant

Cady Way Trail murderer details night of killings
Jesse Davis sentenced to life in prison for killing Nicholas Presha, Jeremy Stewart

UPDATED 11:13 PM EST Dec 05, 2012

WINTER PARK, Fla. — A new audio recording has been released of admitted Cady Way Trail killer Jesse Davis describing to detectives how he killed two Winter Park High School students in April.

Listen to the full recording (Warning: GRAPHIC)

In the tape, Davis said he fired a gun into the wall at his house and told 16-year-old Nicholas Presha and 18-year-old Jeremy Stewart to strip and get on the ground as he was waving the gun at them.

Davis said he then tied them up and put rags over their faces, put them in the back seat of a truck and drove to a Citgo gas station with Hector Rodriguez in the front seat, who is also charged with murder in the case.

"I put some gas in the trunk where I had a container, like a milk jug," he said. "I knew that I was going to set them on fire."

Davis said he hoped the fire would "burn away the evidence."

Davis said one of the teenagers started asking questions about why Davis put gas in the trunk. Presha was asking if he could have his gun back.

Davis told the detective that he dropped off Rodriguez before he killed the teenagers, but he couldn't remember where he dropped him off. During the interview, detectives accuse Davis of lying to protect Rodriguez.

Davis then described the scene on the Cady Way Trail.

He says the teens didn't hesitate to get out of the truck because they thought they were being dropped off.

Read more: http://www.wesh.com/news/central-florida/orange-county/Cady-Way-Trail-murderer-details-night-of-killings/-/12978032/17668940/-/qe6ua9/-/index.html#ixzz2EF5UZM6j