Opening statements were presented at the Alachua County Criminal Courthouse Wednesday in the trial of three men accused of killing Christin Cassels of Hawthorne nearly a decade ago.
Nikenson Perin, Keneth Altidor and Blake Jackson were arrested in 2024 and charged with first-degree premeditated murder and burglary.
Prosecutors say that on April 21, 2017, Perin, Altidor and Herb Smith drove five hours from Fort Lauderdale to Hawthorne. They met Blake Jackson, who recruited them to assist in, at the very least, an armed robbery of Smith’s cousin, Ian “Bob” Munnerlyn, a Hawthorne native and drug dealer…