Teen girl in Florida shootout with deputies, facing life in prison, says she wants to go to trial

Nicole Jackson-Maldonado, the 15-year-old girl facing up to life in prison on a charge of attempted murder of a law enforcement officer in a shootout with deputies, told a judge on Wednesday that she wants to go to trial.

Jackson-Maldonado declined a plea offer by prosecutors that would send her to state prison for 20 years followed by 40 years of probation.

It is a starkly different plea offer than the one accepted by her co-defendant in the case, a 13-year-old boy who faced the same charges and could be released from a juvenile facility in less than three years.

Since the boy was charged as a juvenile, The News-Journal is not naming him.

Jackson-Maldonado was charged as an adult.

Circuit Judge Elizabeth Blackburn asked Jackson whether she wanted to speak about the choice facing her.

“Yes, hmm, I think taking it to trial is, like, kind of better than just taking a plea deal,” Jackson-Maldonado said. “So, I kind of think it’s my choice to do that.”

The judge scheduled a hearing for July 6 at which time a trial date may be set.

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Jackson-Maldonado was 14 and the boy was 12 on June 1, 2021, when they ran away from the Florida United Methodist Children’s Home in Enterprise, broke into a house where they found some guns and then both shot at responding deputies, according to charging affidavits.

No deputy was hit, but Jackson-Maldonado was shot by deputies when she walked out of the house with a gun, affidavits stated.

The boy was prosecuted in juvenile court on the same charges and was sentenced in March to a maximum risk commitment program. Once released, the boy, who was slight and not much taller than the podium in the courtroom, will be on conditional release, a juvenile-version of probation.

In contrast to the boy, Jackson-Maldonado is taller than some adults. She stood in adult felony court in an orange jumpsuit with her hands in handcuffs attached to a belt, like all inmates appearing before a judge at the S. James Foxman Justice Center in Daytona Beach.

Both the boy and Jackson-Maldonado have been previously detained under the state's Baker Act, which allows for the involuntary commitment of someone considered a danger to him or herself or others.

Jackson-Maldonado was also accused last year of setting fires to vacant lots in Palm Coast.

Jackson-Maldonado, who has been held in the Volusia County Branch jail since her release from a hospital for treatment of gunshot wounds, was charged with attempted first-degree murder of a law enforcement officer (firearm), burglary of a dwelling while armed, and criminal mischief causing damage of $1,000 or more.

Those are the same charges the boy pled to.

Assistant State Attorney Mark Interlicchio on Wednesday described the plea deal offered to the girl.

Interlicchio said the plea offer would amend the charge of attempted first-degree murder of a law enforcement officer to attempted first-degree murder. On that charge, Jackson-Maldonado would be sentenced to 20 years in state prison followed by 10 years probation.

She would serve a total of 40 years probation on all three charges.

Jackson-Maldonado would be adjudicated guilty and must pay restitution, which is the same outcome as for the boy.

Blackburn asked Jackson-Maldonado whether she had discussed the plea offer with her attorney, Assistant Public Defender Larry Avallone.

“I did your honor,” Jackson-Maldonado said.

The judge asked Avallone whether he had explained to her that she faced up to life in prison. Avallone said he had.

“Ms. Jackson, you understand that?” Blackburn asked.

“Yes, I do,” Jackson-Maldonado said.

“And you understand that if you were to be convicted as charged, you have a possible life exposure, which would mean the rest of your natural life would be served in prison,” Blackburn asked. “You understand that?”

“Yes, your honor,” she said.

The judge told her to continue speaking to her attorneys who were experienced and could give her “good guidance” about her chances at trial and what the state could prove or not prove.

“I'm going to encourage you to continue to have some very serious discussions with your lawyer,” Blackburn said.

“But you need to really listen to what they're saying,” Blackburn said. “This is a huge decision for you that, frankly, children of your age, rarely have to face. And that is not something that should be taken lightly. It's not something that should be done without really careful, cautious considerations.”

'Dangerous young woman'

Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood, who after the shooting compared Jackson-Maldonado and the boy's actions to "Bonnie and Clyde," repeated in a text on Wednesday that he supported the State Attorney's decision in the plea offer of 20 years in prison.

When asked if he thought it was fair to treat the boy and the girl so differently, Chitwood repeated he supported prosecutors.

"What is so hard to understand, plea deals are the purview of the State Attorney. I support the State Attorney 1,000% in what he's doing, as do all my deputies," Chitwood texted.

In a previous story, Chitwood stated that Jackson-Maldonado needed to be held accountable and said she was a "dangerous young woman who needs a lot of help."

Volusia County Sheriff’s Office Sgt. Don Maxwell attended the boy’s sentencing. During the shooting, Maxwell had taken cover as the boy and the girl shot at deputies, bullets striking the tree Maxwell stood behind, according to reports.

Maxwell told the boy during the hearing in March that he forgave him and that he would pray for him.

On Wednesday the Sheriff's Office said Maxwell would have no comment on the girl's case.

State Attorney R.J. Larizza's Office did not respond to questions emailed by The News-Journal, but has in the past declined to comment on open cases.

Craig J. Trocino, director of the Miami Law Innocence Clinic at the University of Miami Law School, said previously that Jackson-Maldonado's case belonged in the juvenile system.

Trocino said: “We have a child in need of services who has a history of needing the services and needing them quite severely who presumably isn't getting them and now when it all goes really bad, we say ‘Oh, they're an adult. She has the ability to formulate mental criminal intent, the same way a 30-year-old woman does.' And that's just absurd to me.”

The shootout with deputies

On June 1, 2021, Jackson-Maldonado and the boy ran away from the Florida United Methodist Children's Home in Enterprise where they were living.

Jackson-Maldonado, then 14, and the boy, then 12, ended up breaking into a house and arming themselves with an AK-47, a 12-gauge shotgun and a pistol they found inside, according to reports.

The boy later told investigators that once they found the firearms and the deputies arrived, the girl said she was going to take them on like in the video game "Grand Theft Auto."

When Volusia County Sheriff's Office deputies surrounded the house, Jackson-Maldonado and the boy started shooting at the deputies, reports stated.

Deputies initially held their fire. But in the end, deputies shot Jackson-Maldonado after they said she pointed a shotgun or rifle at them, according to reports. At least one deputy said he believed she fired the weapon. The boy surrendered and was not shot.

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Nicole Jackson-Maldonado, teen accused in shootout, wants to go to trial