Opening statements were presented at the Alachua County Criminal Courthouse Wednesday in the trial of three men accused of killing Christin Cassels of Hawthorne nearly a decade ago.
Nikenson Perin, Keneth Altidor and Blake Jackson were arrested in 2024 and charged with first-degree premeditated murder and burglary.
Prosecutors say that on April 21, 2017, Perin, Altidor and Herb Smith drove five hours from Fort Lauderdale to Hawthorne. They met Blake Jackson, who recruited them to assist in, at the very least, an armed robbery of Smith’s cousin, Ian “Bob” Munnerlyn, a Hawthorne native and drug dealer.
The four men went to Munnerlyn’s property around 9 p.m. for what was an unsuccessful drug deal between Jackson and Munnerlyn. But prosecutors said drugs were never the point. They said the visit gave the men an opportunity to scout the property. Prosecutors said Perin returned to the property at around 10:30 p.m. the same night to carry out the plan to rob Munnerlyn.
Prosecutors said that, at the same time, Munnerlyn’s girlfriend, Christin Cassels, a home health care nurse, went outside to get her clothes for work the next day. She was shot and killed at 11:14 p.m. by Perin, just four days before her 24th birthday. All of this was the testimony the state presented Wednesday.
“They came up for a job. They stayed as long as it took to do the job,” said Assistant State Attorney Daniel Owens.
The state cited information from cellphone records, Google location data and a Facebook video posted to one of the defendants’ accounts it used to trace the defendants’ movements before and after the shooting. That information helped detectives identify the suspects years after the killing, according to prosecutors.
The defense argued that the state’s timeline relies too heavily on assumptions and cellphone data that cannot precisely prove where each defendant was or what each person did.
“It’s not an exact science by any means, and it’s not totally reliable,” said defense attorney John Ramsey, who is representing Keneth Altidor.
Defense attorneys representing each defendant also questioned whether the state could prove each defendant’s intent and role beyond a reasonable doubt. They also challenged the credibility of key witnesses, particularly Munnerlyn.
In his testimony, Munnerlyn said he heard Cassels scream his name the night she was killed. She sounded frightened, he testified.
Munnerlyn testified that Cassels said “We’re gonna die,” as he pulled her through the doorway. Munnerlyn said gunfire tore through the glass door, knocking them both to the floor and lodging shards of glass in Munnerlyn’s eyes and arms.
With his vision impaired, Munnerlyn testified that he found his guns and fired back as more bullets came through the windows. Cassels remained on the floor beneath a window, Munnerlyn testified.
Munnerlyn said he estimated the exchange lasted about 10 minutes. When Cassels stood near the window, he testified, she was shot in the head. He told the jury he saw it happen.
Munnerlyn, the last person with Cassels before she died, was the first witness called to the stand. His sister, Brittany Williams and brother, Devin Munnerlyn, also testified Wednesday. Williams lived in the main house on the property with her children and her mother. She said she was sitting on the couch in the home when she heard the gunfire. She said she called 911 when she saw her brother come to the door covered in blood and with swollen eyes.
Testimony from the medical examiner supported parts of Munnerlyn’s account of the shooting. Milad Webb, chief medical examiner for District 8, presented the findings from the autopsy performed by William Hamilton, a medical examiner and forensic pathologist who has since retired.
Webb testified the autopsy shows that Cassels died nearly instantly from a gunshot wound to the head. Cassels also received a gunshot wound through her right wrist. Members of the jury and Cassels’ family were visibly emotional as Webb displayed multiple images of Cassels’ injuries.
Prosecutors said it was phone data that broke the case, which had been unsolved for seven years. But defense attorneys separately argued that the timeline leaves gaps and questioned witnesses’ credibility.
The final witness Wednesday was former Alachua County Sheriff’s Detective James Robert Parker, who testified that Blake Jackson was an early focus of the investigation: Jackson grew up knowing Munnerlyn, and Cassels had previously worked for Jackson’s mother. Parker testified that Jackson acknowledged visiting Munnerlyn’s property before the shooting, but no arrest had been made by the time Parker left the agency in 2021.
A new lead came from a Google geofence search requested in late 2019. Parker said the search ultimately led investigators to a Gmail account associated with Perin. Location records traced account activity from South Florida to Hawthorne on the day of the killing and back south afterward, Parker testified.
Investigators compared that route with toll records, a Facebook video filmed inside a car and a debit card purchase near an interstate exit. Parker testified that the records aligned at points along the trip. Defense attorneys pressed Parker on what those records could establish and on evidence investigators had not collected, including tire impressions.
Members of Cassels’ family filled several rows of the courtroom Wednesday. Two relatives wiped away tears as the jury heard testimony about her injuries. After the court’s first day of proceedings, Cassels’ aunt, Renae Warnick, said she wanted people to know Christin beyond the trial. “She was a good girl,” Warnick said.
Cassels’ mother, Brenda Cassels, said she remembered her daughter’s smile and laugh. When Christin walked into her office, Cassels said, she always greeted her the same way: “Hey, girl.”
The trial is set to resume Thursday and continue through the week.