Two Boys Accused of Killing Each Others Brother

As reported by the Miami-Dade, two former friends for life are both being accused of murdering each other's brother, during one summer, in an Overtown housing project. 

Jamarco Stafford and James Adams, both now 17, were well known for playing both basketball and football together in Overtown. The pair also went to the same Head Start program.  It was convenient for Adams to frequently sleep over at the Stafford home as the families lived less than two parking lots apart.

Now Adams is being accused of fatally shooting Jamarquis Stafford, 16, on July 17 and Jamarco Stafford is accused of slaying Lavoris Adams, 32, on September 15.

Overton police officer, and also great-aunt of the Stafford brothers, Natalie Ogletree, said, "I feel for both families. It's really puzzling to a lot of people because of the friendship that came with this. It wasn't two enemies out on the street. These were actually friends."

The project is known for its high crime rate and many of its residents are living below the poverty rate.

Matriarch of the Adams family, Cendonia Adams, 48, commented, "I got to bury a child. I've got one in jail. These are the neighborhood children. They went everywhere together."

Even the mothers, Cendonia Adams and Santrella Mackey, Stafford's mother, were friends that were known to chat at a corner store.  Their two boys, now in detention cells, were born a month apart in the winter of 1992.  At one point three of the four boys attended MacArthur North High School at the same time.

Their football coach for the Optimist Club Overtown Rattlers, Darrick Rudolph, spoke of Stafford and Adams, "Jamarco, the tall slim one, he was laid back.  He wasn't a kid to start anything. James was a quick-tempered kid, [but] he wasn't dumb and stupid...They were talented in football."

Rudolph reported seeing the two boys together, riding their bicycles, just days before Jamarquis was killed.

All four of the young men, the accused and the deceased, had trouble with the law. 

James Adams, among other charges, had been arrested on several counts of aggravated assault with a weapon. Jamarquis Stafford had been arrested for simple assault, battery and strong-arm robbery. Jamarco Stafford was arrested for vehicle theft and resisting an officer, and Lavoris Adams, the only one over eighteen, had several drug arrests.

James allegedly shot Adams in an attempt to get a borrowed gun returned on July 17. Things were quiet until September 11 when Jamarco Stafford couldn't hold his anger in check any longer. He argued with Lavoris Adams and then shot him several times until he died.

Stafford is charged with second-degree murder as a juvenile. Adams is charged with second-degree murder with a deadly weapon as an adult.

The homicide investigator, Sgt. Ervens Ford concluded, "You don't recover from something like this. It affects the whole family the rest of their life. What we see way too commonly is before these kids become productive citizens, they get eaten up by the streets." 

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