Teen who police say killed 4-year-old in Charlotte accused of stealing 8 cars
An 18-year-old accused of killing a 4-year-old while stealing a sports car outside a grandma’s Charlotte townhome last month had been arrested in nearly a dozen car thefts, court records show.
Anthony Abel Jr. led police to his doorstep less than a year ago when the then-17-year-old posted video of himself driving a stolen, striped sports car through Charlotte. That was one of eight cars officers believe he stole in two months, according to court documents.
Officers again arrested Abel in the Sept. 17 theft that left 4-year-old Jayce Edwards bleeding out in his grandmother’s bed on Cigar Court in Steele Creek.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department officers say Abel and three others were stealing a neighbor’s Black Dodge Charger when a gunman shot “directly and intentionally” into Jayce’s grandma’s home. The shot was unprovoked, police say, and Jayce died at the scene.
It is unclear who fired the fatal shot. North Carolina police also arrested Angelo Hudson, Jordon Davis and Marquise Guerrier, who are 22, 23 and 24, respectively.
All four face murder charges. Here’s a look at their criminal histories.
Teen accused of stealing high-end cars
In February, Abel — who was 17 at the time — was sentenced to 18 months of probation for speeding to elude arrest and driving while impaired in Rowan County, according to North Carolina Department of Adult Corrections website.
Then, in April, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department officers arrested him after he posted a video driving a stolen Dodge Durango with a broken window and hanging wires on Instagram. In that arrest report, police said they had two months earlier arrested Abel in his apartment complex on seven counts of larceny of a motor vehicle, three counts of attempted larceny of a motor vehicle, and seven counts of conspiracy to commit larceny of a motor vehicle.
“Abel primarily targeted high-end motor vehicles such as SRTs and sports cars,” the police report says.
He posted a $5,000 secured bond and was released from jail.
Then he was arrested in Wake County on Sept. 10 and charged with having a gun and marijuana and driving with a suspended license. He again posted bond, and on Sept. 11 his probation officer issued an arrest warrant for fleeing to allude arrest.
That was six days before Jayce died.
Police say 23-year-old Davis was also involved in the fatal heist.
South Carolina police records show he was — 29 times — charged with breaking into fuel tanks and nine times charged with grand larceny. He was convicted on those 2024 South Carolina charges of 2nd-degree burglary, two counts of grand larceny, one count of breaking into fuel tanks and one count of criminal conspiracy.
He also served three years in North Carolina prison after being convicted of 2019 charges on breaking and entering, larceny and robbery with a dangerous weapon and 2021 charges of possession of a firearm by a felon, resisting an officer, breaking and entering, fraud and speeding to elude arrest.
The oldest member of the four-man crew, 24-year-old Guerrier, failed to appear in court a month before the deadly theft. He was charged in 2023 with carrying a concealed weapon.
He has not been convicted of any crimes. He was previously charged in Mecklenburg in 2018 with misdemeanor larceny and resisting an officer and in 2023 with speeding and reckless driving. All those charges were dismissed
According to court documents, Hudson, 22, has never been arrested or charged with any crimes in North or South Carolina until now.
