'Hiccup Girl', Jennifer Mee was found guilty of first-degree murder and is sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, according to People.
A Pinellas County jury deliberated for four hours before delivering the verdict against 22-year-old Jennifer Mee. Mee wept in the Clearwater courtroom as the verdict was read. Minutes later, Judge Nancy Moate Ley explained that the only possible sentence for the charge was life in prison without the possibility of parole.
The verdict and five-day trial was a sad end to a chapter in Mee's short and sad life. Her attorneys said she suffered from schizophrenia and Tourette's Syndrome, and a court psychiatrist said Mee's intelligence was "low normal."
As a 15-year-old, Mee developed a case of the hiccups that wouldn't go away. She appeared on several TV shows and while on the Today show, was hugged by fellow guest and country music star Keith Urban. She tried home remedies and consulted medical specialists, a hypnotist and an acupuncturist, until the hiccups finally stopped on their own, though not for good.
Her attorney, John Trevena, said his client was on medication to control the hiccupping, and even then, she occasionally had bouts. She hiccupped briefly during one day of her murder trial. In 2010, Mee lured Shannon Griffin, a 22-year-old Wal-Mart worker, to an abandoned home under the pretense of buying marijuana. Once there, two of Mee's friends robbed Griffin at gunpoint - but he struggled and was shot four times.
Mee's co-defendant, LaRon Raiford, was convicted and sentenced to life in prison in August. Lamont Newton, the other co-defendant who was also Mee's boyfriend at the time of the crime, has not yet gone to trial.
