St. Petersburg police have arrested a man in connection to a house fire in Coquina Key last month that killed an 18-year-old Gibbs High School student and seriously injured her sister.
Charles Chambliss III, 18, turned himself in Wednesday, two days after investigators obtained a warrant for his arrest, police announced Thursday. Chambliss faces one count of felony murder and three counts of attempted felony murder.
Four people were in the home at 3963 Neptune Drive NE at about 3:30 a.m. March 22 when Chambliss set fire to a car parked in the carport, according to police. The fire spread to the carport and the home.
Angelina Anderson died from injuries sustained in the fire. Her sister Ashley Nero, 35, was severely injured. Nero remained hospitalized Thursday in stable condition with serious burn injuries, police said.
Nero’s two sons, a 17-year-old and an 11-year-old, were also inside the home but were not injured.
A key piece of evidence in the investigation is surveillance video from a nearby home showing a suspect approaching the house and then leaving on foot as smoke begins to billow from the carport area, Assistant police Chief Michael Kovacsev said at a news conference Thursday. The suspect was wearing dark clothing, including a sweatshirt with a distinctive design on the back. Detectives also obtained video from a nearby 7-Eleven that showed Chambliss III wearing what appeared to be the same sweatshirt, Kovacsev said.
Canvassing the neighborhood and collecting other home surveillance video, detectives determined the suspect returned to a home in the 400 block of Lewis Boulevard, where Chambliss III lives with his parents, Kovacsev said. The house is about a half-mile south of the Neptune Drive home.
According to an arrest affidavit, an undercover detective surveilling the family’s home saw Chambliss Jr. speaking with someone investigators had already interviewed as part of the investigation. The investigators had asked the person about the distinctive sweatshirt.
Immediately after Chambliss Jr. spoke with that person, he left his house and discarded the sweatshirt in a dumpster at a business in the 1100 block of 62nd Avenue South, about 2 miles from his home, the affidavit states.
Speaking with detectives, Chambliss Jr. “made some incriminating statements about himself as well as his son,” Kovacsev said. He did not elaborate on the statements.
Police on Friday arrested Chambliss Jr. on an evidence tampering charge. He was released from the Pinellas County Jail on Saturday after posting a $5,000 bond, records show. Efforts to reach him Thursday were not immediately successful.
Chambliss III was being held in the county jail Thursday without bond.
He asked for an attorney and did not speak at length with investigators. Kovacsev said investigators do not yet have a motive, but said Chambliss III knows Nero’s 17-year-old son and had been to the home on multiple occasions, including earlier in the day before the fire, Kovacsev said.
“There might have been some type of disagreement,” the assistant chief said. “We don’t know what exactly caused him to go out at 3 in the morning to go do this, and we may never know. We’re hopeful now that he’s in custody, anybody that has the information or heard anything will reach out to detectives so that they can continue to follow up, and ultimately, we’ll be able to kind of really get a better idea of why this tragic incident occurred.”
In Florida, a suspect can be charged with felony murder if a person dies while the suspect is committing other felony crimes, such as arson or armed robbery.
Anderson was a student at Gibbs High School, according to an email sent to families March 24 by principal Barry Brown.
Bridget Keeley, a cook and cashier in the Gibbs cafeteria for 18 years until she retired this year, said everyone in the Gibbs community is devastated.
Keeley said she would visit Anderson’s table during lunch, and the two would joke and talk.
“She was a sweet kid and had the most beautiful voice you would ever want to hear,” she said. “Justice needs to be served with this; it really does.”
The family lost all their belongings in the fire, according to a GoFundMe campaign launched to raise money for funeral and medical expenses and other needs.
The GoFundMe was written by Anderson’s oldest sister, Ursula, who told the Tampa Bay Times that Angelina was extremely loved by her five siblings.
The siblings’ mother died in 2011, and Ashley Nero was given custody of Anderson after their grandmother’s death in 2020.
Anderson had autism, her sister said, and had a “childlike mindset” despite being 18. She was supposed to graduate high school this year.
She loved to dance around the house and sing Ariana Grande songs, she said.
“Her light, her love, her smile, and her presence meant everything to us, and the void she has left behind is immeasurable,” she wrote of Angelina. “Losing her in the midst of this tragedy has broken our hearts in ways words cannot fully express.”