'Hiccup Girl,' 19, Charged With First-Degree Murder
Jennifer Mee confessed to killing a man in robbery gone wrong, cops say.
Oct. 25, 2010— -- A Florida woman who gained national attention for hiccuping nonstop for five weeks has confessed to killing a man in a robbery gone wrong, according to police.
Jennifer Mee, 19, was charged along with two men in the murder of 22-year-old Shannon Griffin in St. Petersburg, Fla. Saturday.
Mee lured the victim to a St. Petersburg home where the two other suspects, Laron Raiford, 20, and Lamont Newton, 22, robbed him at gunpoint with a .38-caliber revolver, police said.
"Griffin struggled with the suspects during the robbery," police spokesman Michael Puetz said in a statement. "After which, Griffin was shot and killed."
Griffin was shot several times in the upper body, according to police.
"All three suspects admitted to their involvement and were charged with first-degree murder," the statement read.
First-degree murder could carry the death penalty in Florida.
Mee, known as "the hiccup girl," became fodder for countless water cooler conversations in 2007 after her condition made headlines and she appeared several times on NBC's "Today Show" to discuss her chronic hiccups. Mee hiccuped virtually non-stop for more than a month, up to 50 times a minute.
Mee's hiccups then stopped as abruptly as they started with no indication of what first set them off or what led them to stop.
