HIGH SCHOOL LOVE TRIANGLE ENDS IN MURDER

By Palm Beach and Broward Mugshots

Dwight “DJ” Grant was preparing to graduate when jealousy among Miramar classmates turned into a calculated stairwell ambush. Three teenagers would eventually admit their roles in the murder.

Dwight “DJ” Grant was an 18-year-old senior with his life still ahead of him.

His family remembered him as a kind young man who enjoyed drawing, reading and spending time on the computer. He was only months away from graduating from Miramar High School when he disappeared on October 17, 2021.

Two days later, detectives found DJ’s body concealed behind bushes at the apartment complex where he lived.

The investigation would expose something far more calculated than a spontaneous confrontation. According to authorities, DJ had been deliberately lured into an empty stairwell by three classmates involved in a deadly dispute fueled by jealousy.

JEALOUSY TURNS INTO A MURDER PLOT
Investigators identified the three teenagers as Andre Clements, Christie Parisien and Jaslyn Smith.

All three attended Miramar High School with DJ. Clements reportedly viewed DJ as a romantic rival after learning that DJ had been involved with Clements’ former girlfriend.

But the jealousy did not remain confined to angry words.

Detectives recovered messages showing that Clements had discussed killing DJ several days before his death. In the messages described in court records, Clements warned that murder would happen soon and asked Parisien to help him.

Authorities said Clements also sent threatening messages to his former girlfriend about DJ, indicating that the teenagers already had plans for him.

The messages transformed what might have appeared to be teenage relationship drama into evidence of a developing murder conspiracy.

LURED INTO THE STAIRWELL
On October 17, Parisien contacted DJ and persuaded him to leave his apartment, according to investigators. Authorities said she used the promise of a s3xual encounter to lure him into a stairwell inside the complex.

Clements and Smith were waiting.

Investigators said DJ was restrained and attacked with a knife and a sword. The assault left him with wounds to his neck and chest.

The three teenagers then allegedly worked together to hide DJ’s body and destroy evidence. Surveillance cameras captured portions of what happened afterward, including figures carrying what appeared to be DJ’s lifeless body away from the stairwell.

Police said cleaning supplies were used inside the stairwell, and the teenagers attempted to burn or dispose of evidence.

DJ’s body was left behind bushes only a short distance from his own home.

SURVEILLANCE FOOTAGE AND MESSAGES EXPOSE THE MURDERS
When DJ failed to return home, his family reported him missing.

Miramar police began searching the apartment complex and examining its security-camera recordings. The surveillance footage, phone records and messages among the teenagers quickly turned the missing-person investigation into a homicide case.

The evidence showed that the encounter had not been an unexpected fight. Police said DJ had been selected, contacted and lured to the location where the others were waiting for him.

Parisien and Smith reportedly told investigators that they believed Clements initially intended only to fight DJ. The digital messages and conduct surrounding the attack, however, became central evidence that prosecutors used to establish the existence of a murder plot.

The three teenagers—ages 16 and 17 when DJ was killed—were arrested and prosecuted as adults.

In November 2021, a Broward County grand jury indicted Clements, Parisien and Smith on charges that included first-degree murder with a deadly weapon, conspiracy and evidence tampering. Broward State Attorney’s Office

TWO DEFENDANTS RECEIVE 25-YEAR SENTENCES
The cases remained in the Broward court system for nearly three years.

In August 2024, Christie Parisien and Jaslyn Smith pleaded guilty to murder, conspiracy and evidence-tampering charges connected to DJ’s death.

Each received 25 years in state prison followed by 10 years of probation.

During the proceedings, DJ’s relatives described everything the 18-year-old would never get to experience: graduation, marriage, children and the adult life his family expected to share with him.

Their statements returned the focus to DJ—not simply as the victim in a widely reported case, but as a son and student whose future had been taken away.

CLEMENTS RECEIVES 40 YEARS
Andre Clements initially prepared to stand trial separately. He challenged aspects of the prosecution and at one point attempted to represent himself.

That trial never happened.

On February 18, 2025, Clements pleaded guilty to murder, conspiracy to commit murder and tampering with evidence. A Broward judge sentenced him to 40 years in prison followed by lifetime probation.

At the sentencing hearing, DJ’s mother, Madelyn Emile, spoke about the milestones she and her son would never share. She told the court that she would never have the opportunity to walk him down the aisle.

The emotional testimony also affected Broward Circuit Judge Ernest Kollra. Shortly before imposing the sentence, the judge became visibly emotional and temporarily left the courtroom. He said the case had haunted him and left him wondering how such a crime could happen.

Clements apologized to DJ’s family and said he would trade his life to bring DJ back. A family friend responded that the apology could not relieve the family’s suffering.

The sentence completed the prosecution of all three former classmates.

A FUTURE STOLEN OVER TEENAGE JEALOUSY

The murder of Dwight “DJ” Grant began with jealousy but developed into something deliberate.

There were threatening messages. There was a plan to lure DJ away from his home. There were weapons waiting inside a stairwell. Afterward, there was a coordinated attempt to hide his body and remove evidence.

Three teenagers ultimately admitted their involvement. Two received 25-year prison sentences. The person prosecutors identified as the central instigator received 40 years.

DJ received no opportunity to graduate, build a career, marry or raise a family.

The classmates who should have been preparing for adulthood together instead entered the Florida prison system—all because a high school love triangle ended in murder.

All persons are presumed innocent unless and until convicted in a court of law. The three defendants discussed in this story pleaded guilty to criminal charges connected to Dwight Grant’s death.