BROWARD COUNTY, Fla.- A pair of 17-year-old identical twins have been charged as adults by state prosecutors records say, for their role as accessories in helping their cousin, a jailed murder suspect, escape from a courthouse.
Kreton and Tre’Von Barnes are accused as acting as liaisons between Dayonte Resiles, their jailed murder suspect cousin, and his getaway driver when he made a spectacular break for freedom. The twins are among eight people that are accused of helping plot and carrying out the suspect’s escape plan.
Resiles could face the death penalty in the 2014 stabbing of Jill Halliburton Su of Davie during a burglary of her home.
The Barnes twins each made an appearance in court Saturday where they were individually charged with four felonies: escape, accessory after the fact, aiding an escape and attempting to solicit or conspire burglary, said the Sun Sentinel.
The twins were held without bond and were transferred from juvenile detention to adult lock-up at the Broward Main Jail. The brothers were scheduled to have a joint hearing in juvenile court Monday morning, but prosecutors erased the need for that by filing paperwork Friday charging the juveniles as adults.
Maria Schneider, head of the juvenile court unit in Broward State Attorney’s Office, said she approved the decisions to charge the twins as adults.
Broward Circuit Judge Raag Singhal has been assigned the Barnes’ cases. This is the same judge who was presiding July 15 when Resiles ditched his shackles and made a run for the stairwell to escape for six days of freedom. Resiles was captured in a West Palm Beach motel room on July 20 after tips led police to him.
This is not the twins first time tampering with the law. They have a lengthy juvenile record consisting of mostly suspicion of breaking into homes. Per law, any pending charges they have against them in juvenile court will now follow them to adult court.
