MARION COUNTY, Fla. – A boy who was arrested at 12 years old in connection to the 2023 shooting deaths of three teens in Marion County has pleaded guilty, court records show.
Fourteen-year-old Christopher Atkins and two others — Tahj Brewton, now 18, and Robert Robinson, now 19 — were arrested in April 2023 and charged as adults in the shooting deaths of 16-year-old Layla Silvernail, 16-year-old Camille Quarles and 17-year-old Michael Hodo Jr. in the Ocklawaha area, according to the Marion County Sheriff’s Office.
That May, a grand jury indicted Robinson and Brewton on three counts of first-degree murder charges and Atkins on one count of first-degree murder. All three were charged with robbery with a firearm and tampering with physical evidence.
Wednesday’s hearing lasted less than an hour and saw Atkins enter a guilty plea to all charges, the Ocala StarBanner reported, adding he could be sentenced from a minimum of 40 years to a maximum of life pursuant to the murder and robbery charges.
Silvernail’s body was found March 30, 2023, on the side of the road in the area of the Forest Lakes Park neighborhood while Hodo’s body was located hours later on March 31 — found shot on the side of the road near SE 94th Street and SE 188th Court — and Quarles’ body was found April 1 in Silvernail’s vehicle, which was partially submerged near a body of water near Malauka Loop and Malauka Loop Trace, according to Sheriff Billy Woods.
Robinson and Atkins both confessed to shooting the girl who was found in the trunk, Woods said, adding Atkins’ involvement in the crime was “that he shot the third victim, who (was) in the trunk of the car.”
News 6 is naming and showing the suspects due to the circumstances of the case.