An arrest warrant for murder has been issued for the grandson of a 53-year-old woman who was found buried last week in the backyard of a Neptune Beach home, the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office said Tuesday afternoon.
Logan Mott, 15, who was previously considered a person of interest in her death, remains locked in a juvenile detention facility in Buffalo, New York.
Jacksonville police said authorities in Buffalo have been made aware of the warrant and are coordinating with them, along with the Neptune Beach Police Department and the State Attorney's Office, for Mott's extradition.
"We anticipated it. He will fight the charges in Florida," Mott's attorney, Dominic Saraceno, said in a statement to our News4Jax partner reports.
Mott was scheduled for a Monday afternoon hearing to talk about extradition possibilities, but the hearing was reportedly delayed until 2:30 p.m. Wednesday. He can waive or fight extradition back to Florida.
The State Attorney's Office told News4Jax on Tuesday the arrest warrant affidavit is still active, which mean it's hasn't been served to Mott yet. It's possible it won't be formally served until after he's extradited back to Florida.
The ninth-grader was caught Friday night in New York trying to cross into Canada, authorities said, after a warrant was issued for his arrest on suspicion of stealing his grandmother's car.
Remains identified
Authorities announced Monday morning that the remains of the woman found buried in the backyard of the Seagate Avenue home had been positively identified as Kristina French, who was reported missing Wednesday, along with Mott.
Police said the French was found Friday buried in a shallow grave at the home of her son and grandson. French's son is a Jacksonville Sheriff's Office corrections lieutenant, sources told News4Jax.
Strange case
Mott and French were reported missing Wednesday after they didn't show up at Jacksonville International Airport to pick up Mott's father.
The father returned to find the family's Seagate Avenue home ransacked, his son and his mother gone and their wallets missing, along with several guns, according to Mott's mother, Carrie Campbell-Mott.
“The front door was wide open, and the house had been gone through and the weapons were missing," Campbell-Mott told News4Jax.
Police said Friday that the gun safe appeared to have been damaged, and that there was evidence of "criminal violence" inside the home.
Campbell-Mott said her son's father got a text from French on Tuesday, confirming plans to pick him up at the airport. “We don't know for certain if that was her or not at this point,” she said.
Neither French nor Mott had been at work or school Monday and Tuesday, Campbell-Mott said.
On Friday afternoon, at the first news conference on the case, police disclosed that Mott and a car that looked like French's Dodge Dart had been spotted Thursday in Pennsylvania.
They dug up French's remains in the backyard on Friday afternoon, and he was found in New York later that night.
