A 14-year-old Cocoa boy charged with fatally wounding a Port St. John man during an arranged late-evening meeting in November 2025 has been found incompetent as the case winds through court.
A court hearing on the teen’s mental health status is set for June 24 in the Moore Justice Center courtroom of Brevard Circuit Court Judge Michelle Naberhaus in Viera.
The teen, whose name is not being released by FLORIDA TODAY because of his age, charged with first-degree murder with a firearm and attempted robbery with a firearm while inflicting death in connection with the Nov. 16 shooting of Kelby Gavin Miller.
A grand jury indicted the teen, 13 at the time of the homicide, in December, paving the way for prosecutors to charge him as an adult.
However, the teen’s attorney motioned the court to order a mental health examination for his client to determine if there was an “intellectual disability or autism” as Cocoa detectives investigated the teen’s previous contacts with Miller. They sorted through a cache of social media platforms used by the boy, including a dating app, to find text messages and other details potentially involving others, including his peers.
“There are triable issues of fact in this case, as well as a multitude of sources whereby reasonable doubt can be identified by a jury of his peers,” said Alton Edmond, the teen’s defense attorney.
“However, due to his age and intellectual disability we are duty bound to ensure that he understands the process that he’s facing, and the potential consequences, if he is going to be forced to endure that process by his accuser. Protecting the constitutional rights of my 14-year-old client, currently charged as an adult, is paramount.”
The motion also requested that the judge rule on whether the teen was competent to stand trial in the case that could potentially delve into whether the teen met Miller previously or why someone would serve to arrange a meeting between the pair. Naberhaus ruled that the teen was “incompetent” but “restorable” in her June 9 response to Edmond’s motion.
“The doctor appointed to this case has opined that my client is restorable. He has been ordered to a facility to determine if his competency can actually be restored,” Edmond told FLORIDA TODAY.
Dating app history checked in fatal Cocoa shooting
The shooting happened about 10 p.m. Nov. 16 along Bristol Drive in Cocoa. Cocoa police said that Miller arrived in the neighborhood in his pickup truck for a meeting arranged through a dating app. A review of surveillance video from nearby government housing showed a slim teen in a hoodie walking up to the truck. Police said the teen had a gun and that he fired one shot into Miller’s torso before running from the site.
At the scene, patrol officers found Miller bleeding from the torso wound, with a wallet found nearby. Miller was rushed to Holmes Regional Medical Center in Melbourne, where he was pronounced dead in surgery as family members prayed in the nearby waiting area.
Detectives spent the evening and early morning hours that followed talking to witnesses and reviewing video.
A short distance away, the teen was home with his mother, texting a friend that, “I just killed somebody,” court records show.
Later the next morning, the boy sent another message to a teen identified as his girlfriend, stating, “I might be cooked … I’m sorry,” according to court records.
Detectives tracked the boy to his home, where they found a blood-spattered hoodie and noted his likeness to the person seen on various videos, records show.
Detectives initially believed that someone used a dating app to arrange a meeting between the teen and Miller.
The teen, however, told detectives that he met Miller months before in August through a friend at a Cocoa High football game, but could not provide that friend’s name. The teen also said that he had gone to Miller’s home several times after school to play games on Miller’s PlayStation, court records show.
The teen denied any sexual contact, court records show.
It was not immediately known if the information about prior contact would be discussed during the upcoming hearing.
J.D. Gallop is a criminal justice/breaking news reporter at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Gallop at 321-917-4641or jgallop@floridatoday.com. X: @JDGallop.
This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Judge rules Cocoa teen incompetent in fatal shooting of Port St. John man
Reporting by J.D. Gallop, Florida Today / Florida Today
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By J.D. Gallop, Florida Today | USA TODAY Network
