8 Teens Charged With Beating 16 y/o Girl

According to investigators, Lindsay was attacked about 8:30 p.m. on March 30 by April Cooper, Cara Murphy, Britney Mayes, Brittini Hardcastle, Kayla Hassell and Mercades Nichols, while two boys, Zachary Ashley and Stephen Schumaker, stood outside the house as lookouts.

The girls and Ashley ranged in age from 14 to 17 years old.

All have been arrested and charged with felony battery and false imprisonment.

The single adult, Schumaker, 18, was taken to the Polk County Jail and has since been released on bail.

The Sheriff's Office said after the 35-minute beating, Lindsay was put into a car and taken to South Lakeland, near the intersection of Lakeland Highlands Road and County Road 540A.

Mayes, Hardcastle, and Nichols, who deputies said forced Lindsay into a vehicle and drove her around, will also be charged with felony kidnapping, sheriff's officials said.

Judd has asked the State Attorney's Office to charge all the teens as adults.

"But that's not my decision," he said.

Patrick Lindsay, who still refuses to look at the taped beating, is advocating for removal of these types of videos from Internet sites like MySpace and YouTube.

"As far as I am concerned, MySpace is the anti-Christ for children," he said. "I hope this comes to a final resolution. I am not going to stop here."

Lindsay, her father acknowledges, wasn't perfect and had her share of problems, and was not living at home at the time of the incident.

After an argument with her parents, Lindsay had been living with Nichols for about a week when the beating occurred.

While she was well-liked among her friends, an honor student and maintained a job, her father said, she also had a history of anger problems.

A few years ago she had a fight with her mother, and had been put on probation, he said.

Judd said investigators suspect there were as many five video clips of the incident taken by more than one camera. Investigators have only been able to track down one.

That video, which was made available to the media, shows several girls taunting and hitting Lindsay, who was not seen fighting back.

Judd said the video obtained by investigators shows only the latter half of what happened. What happened earlier isn't part of the video.

Following their arrests the girls joked in a holding cell. One asked if she would be able to make it to cheerleading practice the next day, while several others joked that they wouldn't be making it back to the beach anytime soon, he said.

"They seemed to have absolutely no remorse at all," Judd said. "They were just going to beat her. And beat her they did."

http://www.myspace.com/46598429 is one of their myspace

Brittany Mayes (863) 255-7354
421 Carlton St
Lakeland, FL

Mercedes Nichols (863) 619-5868
6124 Calendar Ct
West Lakeland, FL 33813

Kayla Hassel (863) 569-3212
4535 Old Colony Rd
Mulberry, FL 33860

Brittini Hardcastle (863) 712-5996
1242 Thomasville Circle
Lakeland, FL 33811

Cara Murphy (863) 502-4321
2262 Highlands Creek Dr
Lakeland, FL

April Cooper (863) 686-7159
1111 West Greenwood Street,
Lakeland, FL