WAYNE COUNTY, Mich. – Outside of the courtroom at the 22nd District Court on Friday morning, Cedric Salisbury expressed relief that the mother and son who are charged with killing his daughter, London Thomas, were finally standing in front of a judge.
“It’s been an emotional roller coaster, heartbreaking, you know, we just kept our faith,” Salisbury said. “We believed this day was gonna come, and everybody we all knew that they did something, just happy, that this light has been shone.”
Jalen Pendergrass, 23, and his mother, Charla Pendergrass, 49, were charged with second-degree murder and evidence tampering on Thursday (Oct. 16).
Their arraignment was on Oct. 17, with both standing in front of a judge: Charla stood silently wearing a sweatshirt while Jalen was clad in an orange jumpsuit.
“You can look at them both and see something wrong with them, mainly him,” Jestina Martin, Thomas’ grandmother, said. “And out there on bail, they need to be off the streets because it’s not safe for nobody else’s kids out there.”
Thomas was found dead in Southfield on April 26, two weeks after she had been reported missing to the Detroit police.
Thomas was last seen when she was dropped off at the Pendergrass home on Carlysle Street in Inkster, 21 days earlier on April 5.
Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said the 23-year-old Pendergrass and the 17-year-old Thomas were previously in a relationship, but it had ended at the time she arrived at the house.
On April 26, one of Charla’s friends told the FBI that she’d asked him to move a sealed PC bin with unknown contents on April 11.
Jalen said that he placed the bin in an SUV on Millard Street in Southfield. When police searched the SUV, they found Thomas’ dead body inside the bin.
The Oakland County Medical Examiner found that Thomas died from asphyxia, and her death was ruled a homicide.
Despite a six-month investigation that included dropped initial charges of lying to an officer against Charla, Salisbury is thankful to have made it this far.
“Hopefully, they did a thorough investigation,” he said. “Maybe that’s why it took so long. We can move forward and still wrap this up, so my daughter can rest in peace.”
Charla was given a $5 million cash bond. The judge ordered her to wear a GPS tether and not to leave Michigan.
Jalen was held without bond due to additional charges pending against him in a different case in Oakland County.
Both mother and son are expected back in court next Wednesday, Oct. 22, for a probable cause hearing.