15-year-old relative charged in killing

Popular Miami High football coach Smith shot in home

The 15-year-old relative of Miami High football coach Corey Smith was arrested late Thursday afternoon and charged with murdering the popular educator and stealing cash from his home.

Charles Alexander, who authorities say has a history of mental problems, faces a charges of seconddegree murder and armed grand theft and will eventually be charged as an adult.

According to an arrest report released on Friday, investigators believe Alexander was staying at Smith’s house on Monday and used the coach’s own 9 mm handgun to shoot him dead inside a den. Surveillance footage confirmed that he was the only person in the house at the time of the shooting — and he also confessed to his mother, the report said.

The 15-year-old relative of Miami High football coach Corey Smith was arrested late Thursday afternoon and charged with murdering the popular educator and stealing cash from his home.

Charles Alexander, who authorities say has a history of mental problems, faces a charges of seconddegree murder and armed grand theft and will eventually be charged as an adult.

According to an arrest report released on Friday, investigators believe Alexander was staying at Smith’s house on Monday and used the coach’s own 9mm handgun to shoot him dead inside a den. Surveillance footage confirmed that he was the only person in the house at the time of the shooting — and he also confessed to his mother, the report said.

The arrest adds another terrible twist for a family beset by tragedy.

The teen is the son of Lamar Alexander, 41, the ex-con who last November hijacked a UPS driver, led cops on a high-speed chase and died during a televised shootout on a busy Miramar street. Smith and Alexander were technically cousins, but were raised as brothers — and Smith considered the teen his nephew.

“In life, you gotta make better decisions,” Smith said of Lamar Alexander the day after UPS shooting. “We weren’t raised like that. I love my brother, but he’s been making bad decisions his whole life.”

Family members said the troubled teen called last week to reconnect.

“He asked to come over,” said Amina Smith, the coach’s wife. “We hadn’t seen him since his dad passed. Corey picked him up Sunday night and he spent the night. I left to go to work.”

Then, on Monday morning, shots rang out and police officers rushed to the house on the 2100 block of Northwest 97th Street.

The teen initially told police that he had been studying when the shots rang out. He was interviewed for hours at the Miami-Dade Police Department but was released. Charles gave “inconsistent statements” about what happened inside the home, and he denied any involvement in the murder, police said.

Homicide detectives let him go home as the probe continued. On Wednesday, his mother called police and asked to speak to them. She was “in fear of the defendant,” according to the arrest report, and admitted that Charles “confessed to her that he he had killed his uncle,” the report said.

The suspected murder weapon was discovered in a trash can outside the home.

In addition to his biologi c a l f a t h e r ’s s h o o t i n g death, the teen’s last couple of years had been troubled.

In May 2018, he was arrested on allegations of making a bomb threat at Georgia Jones-Ayers Middle School in Allapattah.

According to an arrest report, administrators received “numerous phone calls” that a bomb would explode unless the school was evacuated. Investigators traced the calls to a phone on the campus; the teen and two others were arrested.

His case in juvenile court was still ongoing before Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Yery Marrero. It was stalled because of ongoing mental-health woes — four times he was declared incompetent to proceed to trial.

A l exa n d e r ’s d e f e n s e lawyer, Rod Vereen, defended his client.

“There are many juveniles who also suffer from early childhood trauma, learning deficiencies, and mental illness and the criminal justice system, can no longer afford t o a l l ow t h e m t o f a l l through t h e c r a c k s ,” Vereen said.

“If the allegations are proven true, that my client committed this unfortunate crime, then here’s a prime example of the system failing this child. Should he have been involuntary committed over the past couple of years, so he would not have been a danger to the community? Coach Smith would still be alive today, right? If the facts are true, who failed whom?”