HOMESTEAD, FLA. (WSVN) - Police released video Thursday of the intense interrogation of a Homestead teenager suspected of murdering a 17-year-old with a machete.
The video from August of 2015 shows the interrogation of 19-year-old Desiray Strickland, who is charged along with four other suspects, in the murder of a 17-year-old student. In the video, Strickland said she is innocent.
Strickland is seen hitting the wall, kicking a chair and trying to block up the camera.
‘I want to know what you are involved in,” a detective is heard telling her in the interrogation video from Aug. 19, 2015.
She responds, “I haven’t done anything wrong.”
“You haven’t waived your rights,” the detective says.
“OK, I’ll talk to you. I haven’t done anything. I promise. I did not do nothing,” Strickland says.
Prosecutors said Strickland and four other suspects murdered 17-year-old Jose Guardado with a machete. Strickland is the only one of the suspects who hasn’t confessed to the murder.
The suspects and Guardado all lived at Homestead Job Corps together when Guardado was murdered in 2015.
Guardado’s family took 7News deep into the woods, where they said they found Jose’s body, shortly after the murder.
“I stopped digging here. That’s where I found his foot, and it was burned,” said one of his brothers.
“Something like this, what happened to my friend, it is not forgettable,” another friend said.
According to police reports, Jose was lured into the woods, ambushed with a machete and ordered to lay in the grave while he was dying.
Investigators said Strickland and one of the suspects had sex in the woods before going back to campus.
“I didn’t do anything. I did not kill that boy. I promise,” Strickland said in the interrogation video.
“I never accused you of anything,” the detective responded.
“You arrested me for murder, but I didn’t do anything,” Strickland said.
Cops said the suspects spent weeks planning the murder, but Strickland stood by her claims of innocence.
At one point in the video, Strickland appeared to be trying to get out of her handcuffs. She also appeared to sketch a message in the table.
“It says, ‘Miami Police Department go hell,'” the detective is heard saying, as he reads the message in the video.
Strickland remains behind bars awaiting her trial.
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