12-year-old Florida boy is being charged with first-degree murder and will be tried as an ADULT

A baby-faced 12-year-old boy has been charged with first-degree murder in the “gang-related” murders of three teens in a small Florida community and will face trial as an adult, authorities have announced.

Christopher Atkins faces one charge, while Robert Robinson, 17, and Tahj Brewton, 16, have been charged with three counts of first-degree murder of the teens whose bodies were dumped in rural Ocklawaha, near Ocala.

Victims Layla Silvernail and Camille Quarles, both 16, and the as-yet unidentified Michael Hodo Jr., 17, were all shot and discovered in different locations over a three-day period starting March 30.

Fifth Judicial Circuit Attorney William Gladson announced the grand jury indictments on Tuesday, saying “all three defendants will be charged as adults in Marion County Circuit Court.”

“Layla Silvernail was found unconscious near a dumpster on March 30 after being shot in the head,” said a release from Gladson’s office, adding new details of the horror. She was taken to hospital and died of her injuries.

Michael Hodo Jr. was found dead by the side of the road the next morning with a gunshot wound to the back of the head.

Camille Quarles was found dead in the trunk of Layla Silvernail’s vehicle on April 1. Quarles had been shot and killed twice while in the trunk of the vehicle.”

Hodo’s name had previously been withheld because his parents had invoked Marcy’s law, a right to privacy to exclude victims’ identities from official reports. Moreover, it was not known exactly where and how Quarles had died.

The three suspects have also been charged with theft with a firearm and tampering with physical evidence. They are all currently incarcerated in the Marion County Jail without bail.

Sheriff Billy Woods told a news conference at the time of the arrests that the victims and alleged killers were all “gang-related in some way” involved in a spate of robberies and burglaries.

Detectives were able to determine that the three murdered teens were together in Silvernail’s car before they were murdered and dumped.

Atkins will be one of the youngest children ever charged with murder as an adult. The youngest was Nathanial Abraham, who was convicted of a 1997 murder in Pontiac, Michigan, committed when he was just 11.

Abraham admitted to 18-year-old Ronnie Greene Jr. shot, but said it was an accident and that he fired at trees randomly.

He was sentenced to stay in a high-security juvenile detention center until his 21st birthday. Since his release, he has had frequent run-ins with the law and is currently serving six to 40 years in Michigan’s Bellamy Creek Penitentiary for drug offenses. He is eligible for parole in 2025.

An arrest warrant for Atkins obtained by DailyMail.com confirmed exclusive details about the 17-year-old found at the edge of a dirt road, now known as Hodo.

A teenage girl who discovered the body on her way to her school bus stop told us shortly after the murders, “He was lying on his side wearing a black hoodie, black shirt, black pants, and black shoes.”

The girl, who would only give her name Khatia, continued: “He had a hoodie over his head and he had a black mask over his face. I couldn’t see his face. You could only see his eyes.’

Khatia’s brother who was with her called 911.

In Atkins’ affidavit, obtained by DailyMail.com, the detective wrote that Hodo’s body was “about three feet from the dirt road.”

He continued, “I saw drag marks in the sand leading from the northeast corner of the intersection to the victim’s feet. Some drag tracks have been run over by vehicular traffic.’

The detective “saw that the victim was wearing black Nike shoes, blue jeans, a black hooded jacket with blue/pink lettering and the hoodie over his head and tied below his neck.

On the left hand of the victim was a black-gray work glove ‘Maxiflex’. On the victim’s right hand, he wore a light and dark green gardening glove. There was probably blood on both gloves.

“The victim was wearing a ski mask with a red and black paisley pattern. At that point, the only exposed body parts of the victim were his eyes and eyebrows, parts of his neck and his abdomen due to his jacket being pulled up above his navel.

“There was probably blood on the victim’s clothing and saturated blood on the hood of his jacket under his head.”

After removing some clothing, the detective found an “apparent gunshot wound just behind the victim’s left ear.” This wound looked like an entrance wound.’ The exit wound was on his right cheek below the eye.

Hodo’s father later arrived and identified him, the arrest report said. The parent told police he last saw his son between 6 and 6:30 p.m. on March 30 at the Moose Lodge in Ocklawaha in Silvernail’s white 2015 Chevrolet Cruze.

Atkins was led shirtless and handcuffed on a perp walk when he was transported to jail shortly after being arrested at his home. He looked icy as he was flanked by deputies.

Sheriff Woods has asserted of the defendants and the victims, “We have nothing to say that it was any rivalry … but each one of them was connected to a gang in some way.”

“There is no honor among thieves and at some point these individuals turned on our three victims and killed them.”

Silvernail’s body was discovered just before 9 p.m. on March 30 after someone “heard four or five loud bangs that she later associated as gunshots and looked out her window,” Atkins’ arrest report also revealed.

She saw a four-door sedan drive slowly and collide with a dumpster. The woman went outside to see a “man get out of the front passenger seat and run,” before returning, getting behind the wheel and speeding the car into the semi-rural Forest Lake Park neighborhood.

Deputies arrived to find Silvernail bleeding from the head. She was wearing “a tank top and spandex shorts that look like men’s underwear…at the time, Silvernail’s white 2015 Chevrolet Cruze was missing.”

The car was found with part of the front end on the morning of April 1 in a pond near Lake Mary, nine miles away. “There was an obvious bullet hole in the windshield on the driver’s side,” the report said.

Referring to Quarles, the report continued, “The trunk had been opened and the body was that of a young, medium-built white woman with brown and blonde plaited hair.

“The face of the female body was facing the front of the sedan and her knees were bent back to her back to allow the trunk to close.”

Quarles wore black pants, red, white, and blue socks, and a gray, blood-soaked long-sleeved shirt. She had a gunshot wound to her right temple with close range burns.

According to the report, there were “large amounts” of blood on the front seats, rear seat and center console of the car. A spent 9mm bullet casing was discovered on the front door seal of the passenger door. Another was found on top of the back seat.