Second arrest made in stabbing of local teen, murdered two weeks before boot camp

Fernandina Beach police said they now have in custody both suspects associated with the murder of a local teen who was stabbed to death two weeks before he was to leave for boot camp.

Tommy Erdmann's father calls it a win for his family. “Both of them (are) getting what they deserve,” Thomas Erdmann said.

This week, the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office arrested Brandi Blocker, who officers said helped murder suspect Zachary Fila after the killing.

STORY: Girlfriend of future Marine stabbed to death in Fernandina Beach speaks out

Police said that, on Tarpon Avenue in December 2016, Erdmann’s grandmother heard his screams and saw him bleeding profusely. Police said he later died of his injuries.

Erdmann’s father said his son always wanted to be a Marine. “He wanted to follow in his grandfather’s footsteps and the Marine Corps was definitely his dream,” he said. “He had the flag above his bed. It was the first and last thing he wanted to see.”

Officers said Erdmann and Fila had been fighting over a girl, and new documents obtained by Action News Jax show Erdmann suffered nine stab wounds and three cut wounds. “It’s still not real,” Erdmann's father said.

Blocker had been on the run since an arrest warrant was issued in October 2017.

STORY: Police find bloody evidence in Fernandina Beach teen's stabbing

STORY: 22-year-old arrested for murder after 19-year-old's stabbing death in Fernandina Beach

The new documents say she helped Fila by making false statements to law enforcement offficers regarding the evidence during the investigation, and that she cleaned bloody prints left by Fila and drove him away from the scene.

“Here’s a little conversation we had two months before this,” Erdmann's father said. “He (Tommy Erdmann) said, ‘You know why I come in loud and rude? Because no matter, good or bad, I don’t want to be forgotten.”

“And he’s not forgotten,” Action News Jax reporter Russell Colburn said. “No, no,” the father said.

Blocker is charged with accessory after the fact and tampering with evidence.

Cox Media Group