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Thread: Todd Michael Jackson Charged in 2020 FL Slaying of Crystal and Mark Cline

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    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    Todd Michael Jackson Charged in 2020 FL Slaying of Crystal and Mark Cline


    Crystal and Mark Cline





    Man accused of murdering couple in their sleep arrested after manhunt

    The Polk County Sheriff's Office says their bodies were dumped in a swamp two weeks ago

    By Dale Greenstein
    WTSP News

    POLK COUNTY, Fla — Update: The Polk County Sheriff's Office said Todd Michael Jackson, 34, was arrested at a home Saturday night in the Wabash area of Lakeland.

    Deputies said he was taken into custody without incident. Jackson is charged with two counts of first-degree murder.

    Update: It all started two weeks ago. That's when Sheriff Grady Judd says a felon named Todd Michael Jackson murdered a married couple.

    Judd said in a news conference Saturday Jackson shot and killed 33-year-old Raymond Cline and his 37-year-old wife Crystal – while they slept.

    According to the sheriff, Jackson, 34, was an acquaintance of the couple and had access to their Haines City home.

    After the shootings, Judd says Jackson met up with a friend named Larry Waters, pulled an air conditioning unit out of the Clines' window and shoved their bodies outside. From there, Judd says the two men put the bodies on a furniture dolly, wheeled them to a nearby swamp and dumped them.

    It wasn't until two weeks later that deputies found out about the killings. The Sheriff said a woman named Amberlyn Nichols was trying to sell the Clines' truck for $200. According to the sheriff, she was telling people she didn't need it because the owner had been shot in the head.

    One of those people called the sheriff's office, and Judd said Nichols led them straight to the bodies, which were decomposing in the swamp near 3500 Windy Hill Road.

    She and Waters were both arrested, but deputies are still searching for Jackson.

    Detectives believe he killed the couple because he believed they owed him $30,000.

    “This is one of those things that you know has to be true, because you just can’t make this up,” Sheriff Judd said.

    https://www.wtsp.com/article/news/lo...a-ee55d0870472
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

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    Polk grand jury indicts Lakeland man in couple's fatal shooting

    By Suzie Schottelkotte
    The Ledger

    BARTOW — Nearly seven months after the decomposing bodies of Raymond Mark Cline, 33, and his 37-year-old wife, Crystal Ann, were discovered in a Haines City swamp, a Polk County grand jury indicted Todd Michael Jackson on Friday for their deaths.

    Jackson had been taken into custody for the murders March 7, about a week before the Florida Supreme Court shut down jury proceedings statewide amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Friday’s indictment marks the return of grand jury proceedings in Polk County.

    Jury trials are expected to resume Oct. 5.

    Jackson, 34, of Lakeland, has been indicted on allegations he fatally shot the couple in the bedroom of their Haines City home, then pushed the bodies through an open window before dragging them out to the swampy area behind the home at 3500 Windy Hill Road. At the time of Jackson’s arrest, Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said an air-conditioner had been shoved out of the window so the bodies could be removed.

    Family and friends of the Clines told PCSO detectives the couple hadn’t been seen since Feb. 21, three days before they died and two weeks before their bodies were found, according to reports.

    The break in the case came when a witness told sheriff’s office detectives that Amberlyn Nichols, 19, who was living with the Clines, had told him about the killings. Detectives set up a controlled phone call between Nichols and the witness, in which Nichols said she was trying to sell the couple’s truck for $200, according to an arrest affidavit. She also said the handgun used in the murders had been placed in acid, that the bodies were floating behind the crime scene and that she had set their clothes on fire, the affidavit states.

    Nichols said that Jackson, who she said is her stepfather, had accused Raymond Cline of stealing $30,000 from him, the report states.

    Prosecutors have charged Nichols with accessory after the fact to a capital felony, dealing in stolen property and two counts of failing to report a death. Her boyfriend, Larry James Waters Jr., 20, is charged with accessory after the fact on allegations he helped clean up the crime scene. He, too, is charged with two counts of failing to report a death, along with tampering with evidence, grand theft and multiple stolen identity allegations stemming from the alleged use of the couple’s credit card, reports state.

    In addition to the two counts of first-degree murder, the grand jury indicted Jackson on charges of burglary, tampering with evidence and armed kidnapping. With Friday’s indictment, prosecutors will have 45 days to determine whether to seek the death penalty against Jackson for either count of first-degree murder.

    Jackson has been held in the Polk County Jail without bail since his arrest March 7. Nichols and Waters also remain in custody without bail, according to jail records.

    https://www.theledger.com/story/news...hs/3537992001/
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

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