Trial begins for man accused of raping, killing 16-year-old former NSB High School student

On April 13, 2018, Robert Kern Jr. was supposed to drive his girlfriend’s 16-year-old daughter, Justis Marie Garrett, to Mount Dora High School, a 15- to 20-minute drive from her home in Sorrento.

But instead of going west toward the school, Kern drove east toward Volusia County, Assistant State Attorney Megan Upchurch told a jury on Wednesday in her opening statement. 

“At that point, we know Justis loses access to her phone,” Upchurch said. “She’s either drugged, incapacitated and/or, with threats or violence, is taken control of because there is no further communication from her phone.”

Kern took Garrett into some woods, raped and killed her, said Upchurch, who is prosecuting the case along with Assistant State Attorney Jason Lewis.

Garrett’s body was found several days later off a dirt trail in a heavily wooded area off Service and Gasline roads in DeLand.

The 43-year-old Kern is on trial, charged with first-degree murder and tampering with physical evidence in Garrett's killing. Kern faces mandatory life in prison if convicted on the murder count.

Kern, a handyman, was arrested in February 2019 in Suffolk County, New York. He is being held without bail at the Volusia County Branch Jail.

Circuit Judge Dawn Nichols is presiding over the trial at the Volusia County Courthouse in DeLand.

Kern, wearing a mask, sat silently at the defense table. His attorneys, Assistant Public Defenders Adam Dala and Cameron Brown, reserved making an opening statement Wednesday.

Prosecutors don't know exactly how Garrett was killed, but the medical examiner has ruled her death a homicide.

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Garrett had been attending New Smyrna Beach High School until the family moved to Sorrento in Lake County several months before she was killed. They left New Smyrna Beach because the house they were renting had been sold.

Garrett’s mother, Danielle Pratt, still worked at the Courtyard Grill in New Smyrna Beach, making the commute from Sorrento.

Upchurch told jurors that in the weeks leading up to the murder, Kern had created a fake social media profile and had been sending Garrett messages.

After raping and killing Garrett, Kern drove back toward Lake County and to the area of Mount Dora High School, where he powered down Garrett’s phone and got rid of it, Upchurch said. The phone was never recovered.

Kern returned to the site where Garrett’s body was on Monday, April 16, 2018, Upchurch said. He spent an hour there, Upchurch said.

Bleach was later found on parts of Garrett's remains and her shoes, prosecutors said.

Two days later, on April 18, 2018, a man who belonged to a social group centered around tracking found Garrett’s decomposing and partially skeletal remains.

Investigators located signs of bleach on Garrett’s jeans and on her tennis shoes, Upchurch said.

Garrett's mother testifies

Garrett’s mother, Danielle Pratt, testified on Wednesday that Kern, whom she had started dating in October 2017, was her boyfriend at the time. She said Kern lived with his mother in a mobile home park in Sanford.

Pratt testified that on April 13, 2018, a Friday, she needed to get Garrett’s then-5-year-old sister ready for elementary school. Pratt said Garrett had fallen back to sleep, so she was running late and would miss the school bus.

Pratt said she asked Garrett to message Kern for a ride to school, but then Kern drove up to their house.

Pratt said she waved goodbye to her daughter as she left with Kern in his older model blue Ford Explorer.

She said that was the last time she saw her daughter alive.

Pratt said Garrett had just received an iPhone 8 for a birthday gift in March; she took the phone everywhere and had various social media accounts, like Snapchat, Instagram and Facebook.

Garrett had posted a picture of herself in her room on Snapchat at 6:48 a.m. on April 13, 2018.

“That is the last outgoing social media or phone activity from Justis Garrett,” Upchurch said. “Her history shows that, like any 16-year-old, she is an avid user of her phone and social media.”

But after she got in the SUV with Kern that morning, she never posted again, Upchurch said.

And Garrett had worn a pair of black Nikes she had gotten a month or two earlier.

Upchurch asked how she treated the shoes.

“Like gold,” Pratt said wiping at her eyes.

Pratt said her daughter had never run away and enjoyed going to school.

When she had not heard from her daughter by the following day, Pratt reported her missing to the Mount Dora Police Department.

Pratt had wanted to contact police sooner, but Kern had dissuaded her, Upchurch told jurors.

Pratt testified that she initially told police that she was with Kern and the two dropped Garrett off at Mount Dora High School on April 13.

Pratt told Upchurch she did so because Kern had a suspended driver’s license.

Pratt said she drove around looking for her daughter, went to her friend's house and passed out flyers trying to find her. She tried to contact her through her iPhone, but it went straight to voicemail.

Lewis called to the stand Catherine Slack, an assistant principal at Mount Dora High School. Slack testified that at the request of police, she had checked video cameras in the student drop-off zone and had not seen a blue Ford Explorer, like the one driven by Kern.

Under questioning by Lewis, DeLand Police evidence technician Carol Hunter testified that a hood and drawstring was cinched around Garrett's remains.

Medical Examiner James Fulcher testified that he could not tell whether Garrett had been strangled because a key bone was missing from her neck along with other tissue. He said he could not determine what killed her because of the decomposition.

Fulcher also said that Garrett's nose had been fractured. But he could not say how that happened.

Dala asked him whether it was possible Garrett died of something like a heart attack. Fulcher said it was possible, but unlikely given her age.

Lewis later asked Fulcher if it was likely that a person who died of a heart attack or other natural cause would be found in the woods with her pants pulled down and bleach on part of her body.

Fulcher said no.

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Florida man on trial in murder of 16-year-old Justis Marie Garrett