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Teen in notorious videotaped beating back in jail

News Channel 8 file photo by ERIC HAUSMANN

Mercades Nichols was sentenced to three years of probation after pleading guilty in the March 2008 attack.

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By HOWARD ALTMAN | The Tampa Tribune
and JOSH POLTILOVE | The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 2, 2009

Updated: 07/02/2009 04:56 pm

One of the teens in a notorious videotaped attack on another teen is back in jail after authorities say she drove onto a neighbor's lawn during a dispute.

Mercades Nichols, 18, was arrested Wednesday night after her probation officer filed a warrant, Polk County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Donna Woods said.

Nichols is serving probation on a misdemeanor battery charge stemming from the beating of the teen. She was being held without bail Thursday and has an arraignment scheduled for 8:30 a.m. July 23.

According to sheriff's office records, Nichols' neighbors on Calendar Court had asked her to stop harassing them by phone.

On June 14, after cursing at neighbor Heidi Dease, Nichols drove her grandmother's gold Toyota Camry out of her backyard and onto Dease's lawn, heading toward Dease and her husband, David, who were feeding fish in a pond.

The Camry left tire marks on the grass.

Nichols pleaded guilty in January in connection with the videotaped attack on Victoria Lindsay in March 2008 at the home of Nichols' grandmother. She was sentenced to three years of probation, 100 hours of community service and ordered to pay restitution to Lindsay.

In exchange for the guilty plea, prosecutors dropped kidnapping and witness tampering charges, which carried maximum sentences of life in prison and five years in prison, respectively.

News Channel 8 producer John Strang and reporter Jennifer Leigh contributed to this report.

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