An Inkster man who killed his former teenage girlfriend \u2014 whose body was found stuffed in a bin left in an SUV in Southfield last year \u2014 was sentenced Friday in a Wayne County courtroom.<\/p>\n
At a hearing in 3rd Judicial Circuit Court, Judge Paul Cusick ordered Jalen Pendergrass, 24, to spend 25-50 years in prison for the murder of 17-year-old London Thomas. Pendergrass pleaded guilty on July 2 to second-degree murder for London\u2019s death, and charges of tampering with evidence, felony murder and unlawful imprisonment were dismissed.<\/p>\n
Jail credit of 294 days was noted.<\/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 Jalen Pendergrass\u2019s mother, 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
For Charla Pendergrass, 49, of Clawson, criminal charges of murder, tampering with evidence and unlawful imprisonment are pending. Trial is scheduled for Oct. 26.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An Inkster man who killed his former teenage girlfriend \u2014 whose body was found stuffed in a bin…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1122802,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[7757],"tags":[305648,748,393,4884,305649,257,11316,167121,16,15],"class_list":["post-1122801","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-london","tag-3rd-circuit-court","tag-britain","tag-england","tag-great-britain","tag-jalen-pendergrass","tag-london","tag-london-thomas","tag-sentencing","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/117016536459697215","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1122801","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1122801"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1122801\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1122802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1122801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1122801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1122801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}