In our first look at what may have motivated the three teens accused of murdering Australian baseball player Chris Lane, we looked at the Facebook and Twitter feeds of James “Lilbuggy” Edwards. His social network posts suggest strong interests in rap and gang culture, and enjoyment of violent behavior.
In fact, new evidence says he’s a Crip.
Note the hashtags under the photo — they use both “Crip” and “cc,” which is a Crip affectation.
Lilkadda90 is one of Edwards’ rap associates. In the screencap above you can see Edwards request Lilkadda90 to post this photo on Facebook so he can tag it and make it his own wallpaper. That James Edwards is our James Edwards, the 15-year-old suspect in the murder of Chris Lane. He links the Twitter feeds “@Jamesakabug” in this profile, which was deleted late Tuesday night. It belongs to James Edwards. That Twitter feed also contains evidence that Edwards is a Crip: the frequent use of cc as seen above.
Here’s one instance. There are many others, enough so that it’s obviously intentional.
Edwards, the youngest of the accused at 15, treated Tuesday’s court hearing as a joke.
James Edwards, 15, was treating the murder as a joke, District Attorney Jason Hicks told a hearing in the town of Duncan on Tuesday (Wednesday morning AEST).
Mr Hicks told the court that Edwards has previously been in contact with police, and that he had “an attitude of total disregard for law enforcement” when he was being charged over Lane’s death.
“He thinks it’s funny, and it’s all a joke,” Mr Hicks said.
He had also been in court on Friday, the day of the killing, on an unrelated charge.
Let’s take a look at another of the suspect’s Facebook pages. Chancey Luna, the alleged trigger man, goes by the alias BabyDrake, according to his Facebook page.
Here he is, flashing gang signs with a friend. The photos was posted May 30, 2013.
James Edwards was there that day. He knows gang signs too.
Here’s an homage to black power. It’s posted among Luna’s Facebook cover photos.
Edwards and Luna have a mutual friend, J.J. Mendinghall. They’re not mere Facebook friends, as several posts and the mutually used hashtag #squad show ongoing interaction offline as well as online. Edwards and Mendinghall share an interest in wrestling at school. Mendinghall is not connected to the killing of Chris Lane, but his posts may shed some light on the culture that the friends share.
The day after Edwards, Luna and Jones allegedly shot Chris Lane in the back, Mendinghall posted this note.
“Buggy” is James “Lilbuggy” Edwards. “Free1Chance” is Chancey Luna. Jones doesn’t show up in Meldingham’s friends list or his specific posts about the other two suspects. Was he forced into driving by the other two?
Days before Lane’s murder, Mendinghall and Edwards were apparently involved in violence.
“Bug” is probably Edwards. “Locc” is gang slang.
Monday he posted a note to his friend.
When another Facebook user suggested that the three deserve punishment, Mendinghall issued a public death threat.
The murder weapon, a .22 caliber pistol, has not been found. How the three juveniles obtained firearms, including a shotgun that had its serial numbers filed off, has not been answered. Filing serial numbers off of firearms is a felony, though obviously that’s not the most serious charge at play in this case. This photo is from Edwards’ Facebook page.
“Boredom” seems less and less likely to have been a motive. Here is one of several photos of wads of cash on Edwards’ Facebook page. Where does a “bored” 15 year old get this kind of money?
Update:
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