BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. – A Rockledge teen has been sentenced to 35 years in prison for fatally stabbing his grandmother when he was 16, according to a news release from the State Attorney’s Office for the 18th Judicial Circuit.
Jaylin K. Christian, now 19, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the 2022 killing of 57-year-old Muriel Emerson. The plea agreement left his sentence to the discretion of the judge. During a Jan. 12 hearing, Assistant State Attorney Mike Doyle urged the court to impose a life sentence, calling the attack “gruesome” and emphasizing Emerson’s devotion to her grandson.
“She was his biggest supporter and champion,” Doyle said. Emerson, who had worked as a probation officer, took in the troubled teenager when he couldn’t get along with other family, “and within five months, she was dead,” Doyle said.
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Investigators said Emerson brought Christian home from school on Sept. 7, 2022, and was working at her computer desk when he attacked her from behind with a kitchen knife. Digital evidence collected by Rockledge Police showed Christian had searched online for ways to kill someone from behind with a knife, according to the release.
The Brevard County Medical Examiner found Emerson suffered at least 42 sharp-force injuries, including nine stab wounds that pierced her heart and left lung.
Shortly after the attack, Brevard County Sheriff’s dispatchers traced a 911 hang-up call to a gas station on Clearlake Road in Cocoa. Deputies found Christian there, where he told them he had stabbed his grandmother “too many times to count” and showed them a photo he had taken of her after the attack. Rockledge Police officers were sent to Emerson’s home, where they found her dead.
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Christian later told investigators he killed his grandmother to steal her credit card and run away with a male lover he had met online. Police said no evidence has linked anyone else to the killing.
At the sentencing in Viera, Circuit Judge Charles Crawford ordered Christian to serve lifetime probation after his prison term. Family members, including Christian’s mother, expressed pain and confusion over Emerson’s death but indicated they were satisfied with the outcome.
If Christian violates any terms of his probation after release, he will be returned to prison, according to the release.