Paul Murphy /Eyewitness News
NEWORLEANS- A teenager is accused of being a one-man violent crime wave in the city's St Roch neighborhood.
Thursday, an Orleans Parish grand jury returned a 19-count indictment against 16-year-old Cedrick Berryhill, in a string of murders and burglaries in December.
'This kid obviously is a very dangerous predator who has no regard for the social systems that we live in,' said NOPD Superintendent Ronal Serpas.
According to his indictment, Berryhill is charged with four counts of second-degree murder, two counts of aggravated rape, five counts of aggravated burlary, two counts of kidnapping, five counts of attempted second-degree murder and one count of attempted armed robbery.
'Meaningful juvenile justice has been lost upon us here when Mr. Berryhill has been in and out and needs to be held accountable for these tremendous crime he's responsible for we believe,' said Chief Serpas.
Orleans District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro says he will try Berryhill as an adult.
'Certainly we think this is a case which begs and screams for us to bring and tranfer to the adult court for prosecution in order to obtain for him the most serious penalty available that is a life sentence and keep him off the streets a long as we possibly can,' said Cannizzaro.
Berryhill is indicted for crimes that happened on December 13 and December 23 of last year.
Authorities say there's a possibility the teenager may have committed other crimes.
'We may be getting some additional complaints of activity that occurred in between those times,' said Cannizzaro.
Berryhill has been in jail since January.
He was arested on charges that he entered a home on Port Street, demanded money, then tried to sexually assault a woman inside the home.
His bail is now set a $19 million.
On Thursday, February 24, 2011, District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro's office obtained a nineteen count indictment of Cedric Berryhill that included:
The Grand Jury returned a True Bill indicting Berryhill, 16, with Aggravated Burglary, Second Degree Kidnapping and two counts of Aggravated Rape. The crimes occurred on December 13,2010, in the 1400 block of St. Ferdinand Street.
The Grand Jury returned a True Bill indicting Berryhill, 16, with Aggravated Burglary, Second Degree Kidnapping and Attempted Second Degree Murder of a seventeen-year-old male. The crimes occurred on December 23, 2010, in the 1400 block of Port St.
The Grand Jury returned a True Bill indicting Berryhill, 16, with Aggravated Burglary and Second Degree Murder of Jonathan Hall, 27. The crimes occurred on December 23, 2010, at 1225 St. Roch Ave.
The Grand Jury returned a True Bill indicting Berryhill, 16, with Aggravated Burglary and Second Degree Murder of Jesus Sanchez-Espinoza, 37. The crimes occurred on December 23, 2010, at 1819 North Prieur Street.
The Grand Jury returned a True Bill indicting Berryhill, 16, with Second Degree Kidnapping, Aggravated Burglary, two counts of Attempted Second Degree Murder, and one count of Second Degree Murder of Delmar Noel Soto-Artega, 24. The crimes occurred on December 23, 2010, in the 1800 block of Allen Street.
The Grand Jury returned a True Bill indicting Berryhill, 16, with Attempted Armed Robbery and Second Degree Murder of Ricardo Gomez, 35. The crimes occurred on December 23, 2010, at 1509 Frenchman Street.
The defendant is presently in the custody of the Orleans Parish Sheriff on a $19,000,000 bond.
