"Hiccup Girl" Jennifer Mee May Use Tourette's Defense, Says Lawyer
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (CBS/WFOR/AP) The lawyer for Jennifer Mee, the Florida teen who made headlines in 2007 with her uncontrollable hiccupping and is now accused of murder, said Tuesday his client's Tourette's Syndrome may have played a role in the fatal robbery.
Mee was briefly famous in 2007 because she couldn't stop hiccuping. Her attorney, John Trevena, said she was diagnosed with Tourette's Syndrome, a neurological disorder that can cause involuntary movements and speech problems.
"Hiccups are a symptom of Tourette's," Trevena said, declining to be more specific about how the condition might have affected his client's behavior.
Trevena said Mee, who has never been arrested before, is distraught and is being held without bond in a protective confinement wing at the Pinellas County Jail because she is a high-profile inmate.
Mee's constant hiccups stopped on their own after five weeks, but Trevena said that Mee still suffers from periodic bouts.
"They'll always continue," he told The Associated Press.
Mee, of St. Petersburg, and alleged accomplices Laron Raiford and Lamont Newton, were charged with first-degree murder Sunday in the shooting death of 22-year old Shannon Griffin.
According to the
St. Petersburg Police Department, Mee lured Griffin to a vacant home where the two others robbed him
Saturday and then shot him several times. Kovacsev said police do not
believe Mee fired the gun. They stole less than $50 from Griffin, who was an employee at a Wal-Mart
and planned to be on vacation this week, states the website.
COMPLETE COVERAGE OF JENNIFER MEE ON CRIMESIDER
