LAKE CITY, Fla. – The grandparents of the children involved in the murder of their 16-year-old grandson spoke to News4Jax exclusively Wednesday evening. The couple said the last few days have been horrible for the family and they want the public to know that the portrayal of this family is not accurate.
The grandparents said the oldest daughter, 15-year-old Ariel Kornegay who's charged along with her 11-year-old sister for killing their brother Damien, had problems.
News4Jax obtained investigation documents that show the parents locked up Ariel Kornegay for days at a time; at one point claiming she was locked in her room for 20 days.
The grandparents, Paul and Jo Pittman said they don' t believe it and said the parents who are in jail on child neglect charges were strict-- but not criminal in their parenting.
"I know, Ariel had some emotional problems and they were having problems with her, behavioral problems. But you have brothers and sisters that argue all the time. And the neighbors put in the paper that Ariel was always mad at brother. But I would have them at my house; they had no problems," said Jo Pittman.
"The whole household is being portrayed as animals the way we look at it, it's terrible. The way all news media treats that household. It's not right, it's not true," said Paul Pittman.
"We would do a lot better if we had direction on what to do. We've never had to deal with anything like this. How could you bury a child that is your grandson and their mother and father is sitting over there at detention center? You can't get blessing and if you did the wrong thing how could you live with it after?" The couple said.