Mercades' Aug 7 arrest: The affidavit

Bond has been set at $81,500 in the new charges against Mercades Nichols.

The affidavit documents have also been made available with some redactions. This post will list the notable findings in the document.

- Mercades is still unemployed, according to the CAPIAS. Mercades asked a few months ago for her house arrest to be lifted so she could find a job, so apparently she couldn't find one.

- The stalking, harassment, other crime occurred between 10/31/2007 and 03/28/2008.

- Mercades also harassed, stalked, threatened the girlfriend of the victim.

- Mercades tried to run the victim off the road with her car on 3/28/2008 (just two days before the infamous beating of Victoria Lindsay happened!) Brittini Hardcastle was also in the car during the attempted assault with the car.

- Three victims are named in the Polk County Sheriff affidavit (one name is redacted and is presumably Jacob Johns, former boyfriend of Nichols who filed a restraining order against her last fall).

- Mercades contacted someone via the internet and asked him to beat the victim up. She offered the male $50.00 to beat the victim. Mercades gave him $40.00 and said she would give the other $10.00 once the job was complete.

- Mercades sent several text messages to the victim while the restraining order was active. These messages are listed in the affidavit.

- Mercades was arrested on 2/14/2008 for violating the restraining order.

Probable cause (first paragraph only): On 10/31/2007 at approximately 0725 hours the suspect, Mercades Nichols, intentionally and unlawfully battered [redacted] against his will. The suspect and [redacted] were writing notes back and forth while attending class at Mulberry High School. The suspect began making threats to [redacted] in the note advising she was going to have a group of boys beat him up after school. When [redacted] attempted to keep the note to show the school officials the suspect stabbed [redacted] three times in the hand with a pen she had been using to write the note. [redacted] advised the incident did not cause any permanent damage but left several marks where the pen had left ink behind. The incident was reported to school officials but no actions were taken in reference to the incident.

Mercades Nichols back in jail

Mercades Nichols has just been arrested for aggravated stalking, battery, cyberstalking, and assault with a deadly weapon. These charges stem from a case where Mercades allegedly stalked a former boyfriend last fall. At the time of this posting, Mercades remains in the Polk County jail. A bond hearing is set for Friday morning. It is likely that she will be denied bond, because she already posted bond for an existing case.

Christina Garcia, Mercades' mother, says the charges are in retaliation for her filing a lawsuit against Polk County sheriff Grady Judd. The arrest warrant, however, was put out by the Florida State Attorney's Office, and not Grady Judd, according to a spokeswoman for the PCSO.