Convicted murderer known for prolonged, uncontrollable hiccuping (born 1991)
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Jennifer Ann Mee (born July 28, 1991) is a convicted American murderer known as the "Hiccup Girl" for her long-lasting case of the hiccups. Mee appeared on national American television shows such as NBC's Today Show many times. Mee was arrested for first-degree murder in 2010. After a trial she was convicted and sentenced to life in prison without parole in 2013.[2]M. William Phelps wrote a book about her that was published in 2016.[3] Her transmutation from "media darling" to convicted murderer attracted renewed national attention.[4][5][6]
In 2007, when Mee was 15 years old, she gained international fame when she developed a case of uncontrollable hiccups. She appeared on television shows all over the United States hoping to find a cure. Mee claimed to be hiccupping 50 times a minute.[7][8] National media competed to book her for morning shows.[4][5] Her "world record" bout of hiccups has been compared to the world record for sneezing.[5] The causes and treatment of her condition were disputed, but her popularity as an internet search item was long lasting.[9] Her search for a hiccup cure included "[ingesting] sugar, peanut butter, breathing in a bag, [and] having people scare her".[2] The hiccups were stopped after Mee was treated by Dr. Bob Linde.[citation needed]
Mee continued to get media attention after her hiccups stopped. In June 2007, she ran away from home and it was reported in the newspapers.[2] She later dated a man named Lamont Newton. As she had a plan to find robbery victims online and set them up, Mee recruited Newton and another friend, Laron Raiford, to help her rob victims.[4]
In 2010, Mee met up with a 22-year-old man she encountered online. She invited the man to a vacant home where two of Mee's friends robbed him of less than $50 and shot the man, killing him. As an accomplice to the crime, Mee was charged with murder.[8]
After meeting the victim (Shannon Griffin), Mee led him around to the back of a vacant home where her two friends (Laron Raiford and Lamont Newton) were waiting with a .38 caliber handgun.[2] The victim was shot four times, but police did not know which suspect did the shooting.[10]
Mee, Raiford, and Newton all lived together and were arrested within hours of the crime.[2][11] According to Sergeant Skinner of the St. Petersburg Police Department, Mee and her accomplices admitted to their involvement in the crime.[12]
Prior to the trial, Mee's lawyer, John Trevena,[13] offered to have Mee plead guilty in exchange for a 15-year sentence.[14] Laron Raiford had been offered a sentence of 40 years in exchange for a guilty plea, but he rejected the deal.[15]
During the trial, the prosecution played a recording of a jailhouse phone call between Mee and her mother. During the call, Mee told her mother, "I didn't kill nobody...I set everything up. It all went wrong, Mom. It [expletive] just went downhill after everything happened, Mom." Also, experts testified that Mee's DNA was found on the victim's shirt. Mee's lawyer claimed his client had schizophrenia. The judge ordered a psychological evaluation; however, it was determined that Mee was competent to stand trial.[16] Another defense used by her lawyer was that Mee's hiccups were a symptom of Tourette's syndrome.[17][18]
In 2013, Mee was found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole.[19] Her co-defendants – Laron Raiford and Lamont Newton – were also convicted of first-degree felony murder and sentenced to life in prison.[8]
Mee's attorney moved for a new trial, which was subsequently denied.[20] Her sentence was criticized in an article in the Hastings Women's Law Journal as purportedly disparate from that which would be imposed upon a similarly situated male.[21]
