{"id":383915,"date":"2026-07-02T18:17:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-02T18:17:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/383915\/"},"modified":"2026-07-02T18:17:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T18:17:08","slug":"accused-killer-of-teenager-london-thomas-pleads-guilty-the-oakland-press","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/383915\/","title":{"rendered":"Accused killer of teenager London Thomas pleads guilty \u2013 The Oakland Press"},"content":{"rendered":"

An Inkster man accused of murdering his former teenage girlfriend, whose body was found stuffed in a bin left in an SUV in Southfield last year, opted out of trial with a guilty plea Thursday.<\/p>\n

At a pre-trial hearing before 3rd Judicial Circuit Judge Paul Cusick, Jalen Pendergrass, 24, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder for the death of 17-year-old London Thomas. Charges of tampering with evidence, felony murder and unlawful imprisonment were dismissed.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s scheduled to be sentenced on July 31.<\/p>\n

For Jalen Pendergrass\u2019s mother, Charla Pendergrass, 49, of Clawson, criminal charges of murder, tampering with evidence and unlawful imprisonment are pending. Her next court appearance is scheduled for July 31 for a pretrial hearing before the same judge.<\/p>\n

\"mugshot\"Jalen Pendergrass booking photo
\n\"mugshot\"Charla Pendergrass booking photo<\/p>\n

According to the Wayne County Prosecutor\u2019s Office, London\u2019s mother had reported her missing on April 6, 2025 because she didn\u2019t return home after being dropped off the day before at Jalen Pendergrass\u2019s house. London had been in a relationship with Jalen Pendergrass, but it allegedly ended at the time she arrived at his house, the prosecutor\u2019s office stated.<\/p>\n

Three weeks after London was dropped off at Jalen Pendergrass\u2019s house, a male friend of Charla Pendergrass told Inkster police she had asked him to transport a sealed plastic bin to an SUV parked on Millard Street in Southfield, which he did, the prosecutor\u2019s office stated. The contents were reportedly unknown to him.<\/p>\n

Michigan State Police, along with the FBI and the Detroit Police Department, conducted a search at the Millard Street address and found London\u2019s remains inside the bin, the prosecutor\u2019s office stated.<\/p>\n

Jalen Pendergrass and Charla Pendergrass are held in the Wayne County Jail.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An Inkster man accused of murdering his former teenage girlfriend, whose body was found stuffed in a bin…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":383916,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[155070,155071,38778,134,155069,155073,8908,143,145,144,29023,155072],"class_list":["post-383915","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-3rd-judicial-circuit-court","tag-charla-pendergrass","tag-guilty-plea","tag-homicide","tag-jalen-pendergrass","tag-judge-paul-cusick","tag-london-thomas","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-second-degree-murder","tag-unlawful-imprisonment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383915","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=383915"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383915\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/383916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=383915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=383915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=383915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}