convicted of second-degree murder
BREVARD COUNTY, FLORIDA – A young man who as a 16-year-old stabbed his grandmother to death in Rockledge in 2022 has been convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to 35 years in prison.
Jaylin K. Christian, 19, pled guilty to the murder in an agreement with the State Attorney’s Office that called for his sentence to be decided by the judge.
At a hearing Jan. 12, Assistant State Attorney Mike Doyle called for life imprisonment for Christian for the gruesome killing of his grandmother, Muriel Emerson, 57.
“She was his biggest supporter and champion,” Doyle said. Emerson, who had worked as a probation officer, took in the troubled teenager when he couldn’t get along with other family, “and within five months, she was dead,” Doyle said.
Emerson died Sept. 7, 2022, after she brought Christian home from school to her house on South Carolina Avenue. While she worked at her computer desk, Christian attacked her from behind with a kitchen knife.
Digital evidence collected by Rockledge Police and prosecutors showed he had searched online for how to attack someone from behind and kill them with a knife.
The Brevard County Medical Examiner determined that Emerson died from at least 42 “sharp force injuries” including nine stab wounds that pierced her heart and left lung.
Shortly after the attack, Brevard County Sheriff’s dispatchers received a 911-call hangup that they traced to a gas station on Clearlake Road in Cocoa. There, deputies found Christian, who told them he had just stabbed his grandmother “too many times to count.” He also showed them a photo he had taken of her after the stabbing. Deputies sent Rockledge Police to Emerson’s home where they found her deceased.
Christian said he killed his grandmother in order to steal her credit card and run off with a male lover he met online. Police have not connected anyone else to the murder.
At Christian’s sentencing in Viera, Circuit Judge Charles Crawford ordered lifetime probation following his decades in state prison.
Although still baffled and pained by Emerson’s death, surviving family members including Christian’s mother, appeared satisfied with the resolution of the case.
If Christian violates probation in any way following his release, Doyle said, he will be sent back to prison.
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