Trial begins for 2 teens accused in fatal beating

Boys charged in death of Roger Trindade, 15

Rodrigo Meirelles Vain-Vliet was on Park Avenue in Winter Park the evening of Oct. 15, 2016, just hanging out, eating burgers and talking, when two teenagers sprayed his friend Roger Trindade with something foul.

Meirelles Vain-Vliet, now 19, was the first witness to take the stand Monday in the trial of two teenagers charged with manslaughter in 15-year-old Roger’s death.

“We wanted, of course, an explanation for what they did, and we wanted to know what the spray was because it was a smelly spray, and they hit him in his chest,” Meirelles Vain-Vliet said.

Jesse Sutherland and Simeon Hall, both 16, are both charged as adults. A third teenager was sentenced to a juvenile detention facility in February after pleading no contest to charges of battery on another teenager and tampering with a witness.

Meirelles Vain-Vliet said two teenagers he did not know — not Jesse and Simeon — approached him and Roger in Central Park that night.

“They called Roger by a name that wasn’t his — it was like Jordan or Jonathan, I can’t recall right now,” Meirelles Vain-Vliet said. One of them sprayed a stink spray they had been using as a prank on Roger, he said.

“It took us five seconds, like a shocked state, to understand what happened,” Meirelles VainVliet said.

He and Roger started following the two teenagers, asking them what the spray was. They stopped and started taunting them, Meirelles Vain-Vliet said, saying things like, “I took a [expletive] on this, I sprayed that on you, there’s nothing you can do about it.”

At some point, one of the teenagers called a friend on Park Avenue. That friend, who was with a group that included Jesse and Simeon, called out that someone was about to jump their friend. Jesse and Simeon got on their bicycles and rode over to the stage on the north end of Park Avenue, throwing their bikes onto the grass, Meirelles Vain-Vliet said.

Jesse got there first and started bumping Meirelles Vain-Vliet with his chest and asking if he wanted to fight, Meirelles VainVliet said. Meirelles Vain-Vliet backed up and said he did not want to fight, he testified Monday.

Then Simeon came and delivered the first punch — to Meirelles Vain-Vliet’s jaw, he said. Meirelles Vain-Vliet said he did not see exactly what happened to Roger, but he thought he saw Jesse, who was in a red shirt,

“He [Roger Trindade] was dying, bleeding internally as a result of that knockout punch.” Assistant State Attorney Teri Mills-Uvalle