Teen says she was made a scapegoat in Taylor case

Mar/21/08 08:00 AM Filed in: Sean Taylor
A Fort Myers teen said she was wrongly dragged into football player Sean Taylor’s murder case when the mother of a former friend told prosecutors she let the suspects use a rented vehicle Alexia Anderson, 19, of Fort Myers said Thursday she was made the scapegoat and has no connection to the crime.

“I got nothing to do with it,” she said. “It’s all on her, but she used my name.”

Anderson came to The News-Press on Thursday after seeing a story last week about documents Miami prosecutors released in Taylor’s case. Police believe Eric Rivera, 17, Venjah Hunte, 20, and Charles Wardlow, 18, all of Fort Myers, and Jason Mitchell, 19, of Lehigh Acres, drove to Miami on Nov. 26 to burglarize Taylor’s house. A grand jury indictment revealed Rivera shot the Washington Redskins safety in the leg. Taylor died the next day of blood loss.

Included in the documents released to The News-Press was a statement by Rosemarie Johnson of Lehigh Acres. Johnson told prosecutors and detectives in December she rented a Toyota Highlander for Anderson and Anderson gave the vehicle to Wardlow. Police said the four drove the Highlander to Miami to commit the crime.

But Anderson said Johnson’s daughter, Romaine, got $250 from Wardlow to use the vehicle. Anderson said Romaine told her the money would go to pay a phone bill and to style her hair.

Anderson said Rosemarie Johnson frequently rents vehicles for her daughter, who often lets friends use them for joy riding. Efforts to reach Johnson on Thursday were unsuccessful.

“She was lying,” Anderson said of her former friend. “The night before, she had already gotten the money from them boys.”

Anderson said she doesn’t know Wardlow, is a distant relative of Rivera and that she doesn’t know him very well.

She said she was upset and scared when she found out she has been connected to the case. She said detectives haven’t contacted her.

Prosecutors have been releasing documents from the case to the media, the most recent coming Wednesday — crime scene reports detailing how police believe the suspects got into Taylor’s house. All four have pleaded not guilty.

(news-press.com)