And in other news, an alleged murderer was granted bail on Monday because she is 8 months pregnant. 26-year-old Shereema Neal is accused of being one of the perpetrators who brutally murdered 17-year-old Jasmine Petillo back in 2016. Neal was unrepresented in court on December 17th and no plea was taken from her. She was remanded at the time but is now out on bail.
Petillo was a resident of Mahogany Heights and was reportedly sleeping over at a friend's house when she was ambushed and stabbed over 50 times. Her body was then wrapped in a quilt and dumped in a ditch. During the police's investigations, they managed to find the house that she was killed in, and extracted blood samples from it, which they sent for DNA testing. They also found bloody clothes that they believed were discarded by one of the suspects, and were actively searching for another to conduct a DNA swab on. Those DNA results came back and the police's evidence points to Neal as one of the murderers.
The police also believe that the teenager's murder was revenge for Desmond Usher, who was killed a year before Petillo. Usher was Neal's then-boyfriend and the allegations are that Petillo made a phone call to Usher, luring him to his death.
Neal is due back in court in February 2022.
