A former Palos Verdes High School student who was acquitted of murder in a high-profile case last summer denied a Juvenile Court petition Friday in which he is charged with armed carjacking and robbery.
Cameron Terrell, now 19, was arrested Tuesday by the Los Angeles Police Department and has remained jailed without bail since then, according to jail records.
Terrell was charged Thursday in juvenile court with one count each of armed carjacking and robbery, and is due back in Eastlake Juvenile Court next Wednesday, according to Paul Eakins of the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office. Further details about the alleged crimes were not available.
Terrell was acquitted last July 23 of a first-degree murder charge stemming from an Oct. 1, 2017, shooting in South Los Angeles that killed 21-year-old Justin Holmes.
A Los Angeles Superior Court jury also acquitted Terrell, then 18, of two counts of attempted murder involving two other men who were not injured in that shooting.
Prosecutors contended that Terrell drove the getaway car in the shooting.
“While investigating the murder, evidence was discovered by investigators for additional felony crimes, and due to the dates of those incidents, they could not be charged concurrently with Mr. Terrell’s adult case, as Mr. Terrell was a juvenile at the time of those incidents,” according to an LAPD statement.
Following Terrell’s acquittal in the murder case, defense attorney Jovan Blacknell told reporters outside the courtroom that he and his client were “happy with the outcome” though somewhat dissatisfied with the process and “not even convinced that (Terrell) should have ever been charged with anything, certainly not murder.”