SECOND ARREST IN SHOOTING DEATH IN CALOOSA PARK
An 18-year-old West Palm Beach man has become the second person arrested in the shooting death of a man Sunday in Caloosa Park.
Sinceer Priest, 18, was taken into custody Wednesday night by the U.S. Marshals South Florida Regional Task Force at the security checkpoint at Fort Lauderdale International Airport, Boynton Beach police said. Priest was trying to board a flight to Ohio, police said.
Priest was charged with first-degree murder and taken to Palm Beach County Jail, police said.
At his first court appearance Thursday morning, Judge Jaimie Goodman ordered Priest to be held without bond, according to the Palm Beach Sheriff ’s Office.
Stephen Thal, 17, of Riviera Beach, was arrested Monday night after the shooting death of Desean Menelas, 20, of Boynton Beach in what police are saying was a drug deal gone bad.
The Palm Beach Post is identifying Thal because the State Attorney’s Office confirmed Tuesday that he will be charged as an adult. First-degree murder cases are automatically prosecuted in the adult court, spokesman Mike Edmondson said. Because it is a first-degree murder case, the charge will have to be presented to a grand jury.
Police said while they were at Priest’s home on Wednesday, they talked to a man who saw the shooting and said Priest told him he was with Thal during the shooting, according to an arrest report.
The slaying was the eighth confirmed homicide in Boynton Beach this year and the 90th in Palm Beach County, according to a Palm Beach Post online database.