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Girl In Taped Beating Case Arrested Again

By RAY REYES | The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 7, 2008

Updated: 08/07/2008 10:04 pm

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Mercades Nichols

LAKELAND - Mercades Nichols, one of the teens accused in the videotaped beating of Victoria Lindsay, was arrested Thursday on warrants charging her with multiple counts of aggravated stalking, aggravated assault and battery, the Polk County Sheriff's Office said.

The new charges are not related to the video beating incident, Polk sheriff's spokeswoman Donna Wood said.

Sometime between Oct. 31 and March 28, Nichols stalked and threatened the victim online and in person, even when Nichols was aware that an injunction had been placed against her, Wood said.

"She harassed, cyber-stalked and placed the victim in fear," Wood said, reading from the arrest warrant.

The sheriff's office did not release the name of the victim. Nichols' mother, Christina Garcia, said the victim was her daughter's ex-boyfriend.

Nichols, 17, was charged with two counts of felony aggravated stalking, two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and three counts of misdemeanor battery when she was booked Thursday into Polk County Jail, jail records show.

She was being held without bail. Her first appearance hearing is scheduled for Friday, Wood said.

Nichols was first arrested in April, along with four other teen girls and two teen boys accused of attacking 16-year-old Lindsay and recording the beating on video. Charges against the boys were dropped.

Each of the girls is charged with kidnapping and misdemeanor battery. Nichols, Brittany Mayes and Brittni Hardcastle, both 17, are also charged with witness tampering. In the videotaped beating case, Nichols and the four other defendants have a pretrial hearing scheduled for Aug. 26.

Before she was arrested Thursday, Nichols was under house arrest while she awaited trial in the beating case. Her mother filed last month a notice to sue Polk Sheriff Grady Judd for making defamatory remarks against her and her daughter.

Garcia said the stalking case against her daughter was closed and feels the arrest was in retaliation because of her intent to sue the agency.

"This screams retaliation," Garcia said Thursday of her daughter's arrest. "I will not allow them to do this to my daughter."

Spokeswoman Wood said Garcia's accusations are baseless. The warrant for Nichols was issued by the State Attorney's Office in Polk County, she said.

"I'm sure Ms. Garcia is upset her daughter is arrested," Wood said. "But the State Attorney's Office issued the warrant, and we acted on it."

Reporter Ray Reyes can be reached at (813) 259-7920 or rreyes@tampatrib.com.

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