Staff report
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – A jury has convicted Keneth Altidor, 45, Blake Carrington Jackson, 30, and Nikenson Perin, 38, in connection with the 2017 killing of 23-year-old Hawthorne resident Christin Cassels.
Perin was convicted of first-degree murder and trespassing and sentenced to life in prison. Altidor and Jackson were each found guilty of second-degree murder and will be sentenced at a later date.
The Alachua County Sheriff’s Office responded on April 21, 2017, to a reported shooting near 78150 SE U.S. Highway 301 in Hawthorne. Deputies found Cassels suffering from a gunshot wound, and medical personnel pronounced her dead at the scene.
Investigators spent years examining cellular devices and Google data before identifying the three men as suspects in the case.
With assistance from the Broward County Sheriff’s Office, detectives arrested Jackson and Altidor in July 2024. Altidor was taken into custody July 15 in Fort Lauderdale, while Jackson was arrested July 16 in Hallandale Beach. Both men were held in Broward County before being extradited to Alachua County.
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At the time he was charged in Cassels’ death, Perin was serving a federal prison sentence in Seattle, Washington. He was later extradited to Alachua County to face the murder charges.
The sheriff’s office said in a Facebook post that Cassels’ family, friends and ASO detectives were present when the jury returned guilty verdicts against all three defendants. “After nine long and agonizing years of pursuing justice for Cassels’ senseless murder, her family, friends, and our ASO detectives were in the courtroom as the verdict of ‘guilty’ was read to all three defendants,” the agency wrote.
Alachua County Sheriff Chad Scott said Cassels’ mother, Brenda, and the rest of her family had endured the pain of losing her to what he called a “senseless act of pure evil.” He credited detectives Jeremy York and Chris Weitzel for their determination and said the convictions could bring the family some measure of peace. “There are more families just like the Cassels who are waiting on answers and we will work as long as it takes to ensure that every family gets justice,” Scott said.
