Just over ten years ago, Seath Jackson, a teenager who lived in Belleview, Florida, a rural city in the state, was murdered by five others conspiring in his death. The death was part of a horrible escalation between Seath, Amber Wright, and Michael Bargo, which stemmed from Seath and Amber dating and ending in a terrible way.
Seath was 14 when he started to date Amber, and they were always together. But their relationship didn’t last, and after the pair broke up in March 2011, it quickly turned into a social media feud and then a real-life feud. One night, Amber would lure Seath to her female friend Charlie Ely’s home and would be jumped and then killed.
The death was particularly shocking for several reasons, the sheer brutality of the murder and because of the age of Seath and his assailants.
The Murder
Seath Jackson (Credit – Vocal Media)
Seath was only 15 when he was brutally murdered by his ex-girlfriend Amber, then 15; Michael, then 18; Amber’s stepbrother Kyle Hooper, then 16; Justin Soto, then 20; and Amber’s female friend Charlie Ely, then 18, in April 2011.
After Amber and Seath broke up, the two began exchanging horrible messages on Facebook. Amber started dating Michael, who incorrectly thought that Seath had abused her. At the time, he lived with Charlie Ely and Kyle Hooper in Charlie’s home.
Michael had threatened to kill Seath a week before the murder, and Kyle was also angry at Seath because he was in bed with a girl that he liked. Documents revealed that Kyle had messaged this girl about killing Seath. On April 17, 2011, Michael and the others would come up with a plan to lure and kill Seath.
This would be done by Amber messaging Seath under the guise of working through their issues and getting back together. She lured him to Charlie’s home, where Seath was ambushed by Michael, Kyle, Justin, and Charlie. There, Seath was tortured, shot several times with a 22-caliber firearm, and kneecapped.
Once Seath was killed, his body was put in a firepit and burned. The following day, Justin and Michael went to the quarry in Ocala, put Seath’s remains into paint buckets, and threw them into the water with cinderblocks weighing them down. Kyle, Charlie, and Amber cleaned up the house of blood using bleach, though evidence of the crime still remained and was later found.
Michael’s DNA would be found in a blood mixture in the bathroom, and Charlie’s DNA would be found in a blood mixture in the living room, which also contained Seath’s blood. Police were also able to identify the murder weapon by linking the projectile found in Seath’s remains to the 22-caliber.
Amber Wright
Amber Wright (R) (Credit – Gainsville)
For her part in the death of Seath Jackson, Amber was convicted of first-degree murder and received a life sentence in 2012 from Circuit Judge David Eddy, who said that the murder was the most heinous crime he had seen in his then 15 years as a judge.
Wright was brought back for a retrial in 2016 after her first conviction was overturned by an appellate decision. She was again convicted of first-degree murder and handed a life sentence by Circuit Judge Anthony Tatti.
The Ocala Star Banner reported that Tatti said:
“I have not seen or heard anything more despicable than what lead to Seath Jackson’s death. I cannot imagine a circumstance any worse, and I pray to my God that the reason behind all this is some chemical imbalance or a brain that hasn’t matured. It’s really hard to deal with the notion that such an evil could exist without an explanation.”
Amber’s prison sentence will be up for review after 25 years, meaning that it will be reviewed in 2041. Prison records show that she is incarcerated at the Homestead Correctional Institution in Miami-Dade County, Florida.
As for Charlie and Justin, they also received life sentences. Charlie’s conviction was later vacated in 2020, which lead to a guilty plea of a lesser charge and eventual release.
Michael Bargo and Death Row
Michael Bargo (Credit – Ocala)
For his part as the ringleader and murderer of Seath Jackson, Michael Bargo was convicted of first-degree murder in August 2013. A majority jury ruling (10-2) recommended that he should be put to death, and a circuit judge sentenced him to death.
The Florida Supreme Court later ordered a resentencing as the recommendation wasn’t unanimous, and in 2019 a jury unanimously resentenced him to death, which was imposed.
Bargo appealed this decision and took it to the Florida Supreme Court, citing his mental health as a mitigating factor. But in 2021, the justices upheld the death sentence in a 6-1 verdict. Throughout this period, Bargo has been in prison, and he is still on death row, incarcerated as an inmate at the Union Correctional Institution, according to Florida’s Department of Corrections website.
He is the youngest person to be sentenced to death row. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, there were 323 people in Florida on death row at the end of 2022, down from 338 in 2021. This is the highest number on death row in the US, with California having 690 people on death row at the end of 2022.
Documentaries on the story
There are two documentaries available to watch about the murder of Seath Jackson.
The first one to come out is the second episode of Killer Women with Piers Morgan season 2, which was released on Netflix on June 29, 2017. The series as a whole sees Piers Morgan interviewing females who have committed horrible crimes and shedding light on what drove them to murder.
Episode 12 of Sleeping with a Killer season 1 also focuses on Seath’s death, and it was released on October 10, 2022. This can be watched through a Roku device. The series follows people who have tragic endings at the hands of their husbands, wives, former friends, and lovers.
