'Hiccup Girl' among 3 suspects arrested for killing St. Petersburg man

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - A teenager once known as the "Hiccup Girl" is one of three people arrested for killing a 22-year-old St. Petersburg man Saturday night.

19-year-old Jennifer Ann Mee admitted to luring the victim, 22-year-old Shannon Griffin, to 511 7th Street North around 10:30 p.m, according to the St. Petersburg Police Department.

Once there, Laron Redford, 20, and Lamont Newton, 22, robbed him at gunpoint, detectives said. Griffin struggled during the robbery, and was then shot several times.

He died at the scene.

St. Petersburg Police Chief Chuck Harmon said Monday that Mee met Griffin through a website recently and lured him to the house, which is across the street from her apartment building.

Harmon said it was a robbery gone awry and that less than $50 was stolen from Griffin, who had worked at a Walmart for at least a year and was supposed to be on vacation this week.

All three suspects were taken into custody Sunday afternoon. Investigators say they confessed to their roles in the crime and are now all charged with 1st degree felony murder.

They were denied bond by a Pinellas County judge during their first court appearances Monday.

Mee made news across the world several years ago as the teenager who could not stop hiccupping.

Her plight made national news in 2007 because she kept hiccupping, up to 50 times a minute for months, and nothing she tried would make them stop.

She tried home remedies and consulted medical specialists, a hypnotist and an acupuncturist, until the hiccups finally just stopped on their own.

Mee was being held without bond early Monday. Pinellas County jail records did not show whether she had an attorney.

Mee is no longer suffering from the hiccups, police spokesman Mike Puetz said. She has a court appearance this afternoon.

Mee's mother Rachel Robidoux spoke to WFLZ's "MJ Morning Show" Monday morning, and said she was shocked by her daughter's arrest, which she learned of Sunday night, just as the police department issued a press release about the arrest.

"My life has been shattered into a million pieces," Robidoux told MJ Kelly, "This feels like a nightmare."

She said her daughter is a "lovable, sweet little girl who wouldn't hurt a fly. Robidoux explained she knew of the other 2 men but didn't know much about them.

When asked if she thought her daughter knew if the victim was going to be shot, Rachel said "Knowing my daughter, I don't think she knew what was going to happen because that's not Jennifer," Robidoux said. "She's not out to hurt anyone."

Robidoux said Mee had never been arrested before, but that the notoriety she received as "Hiccup Girl" troubled her.

"All of a sudden people knew her name and she would talk to them on different chat sites, and they would act like they knew her when they didn't," she said. "She's very naive, and I just think she was getting herself into stuff when she didn't know what she was doing.

On her MySpace page, which she had logged into the day of her arrest, Mee identified herself as being from "St. Pistol, Fla." and said she is a "female version of a hustla" and adds that "her heart is still in Vermont," where her father lives.

While this is Mee's 1st arrest, it's not the first time she's been on police's radar. At least twice she was reported as a runaway child.

Last January Mee ran away from home. Robidoux said at the time Jennifer stormed off after getting into a fight with her boyfriend. She was later found at a relative's house.