Perin was sentenced to life after a jury convicted him and two co-defendants in Christin Cassels' murder.

A jury's guilty verdict is a judgment of guilt on the counts it found, and Perin's life sentence is the judgment on his first-degree murder and trespass convictions. On Monday, Sept. 28, 2026, a jury in the Gainesville and Alachua County area convicted Nikenson Perin of first-degree murder and trespass in the 2017 killing of Christin Cassels and sentenced him to life. Blake Jackson and Keneth Altidor were each convicted of second-degree murder and acquitted of trespass. Those murder convictions are judgments of guilt, and both men still await sentencing.

Christin Cassels, 23, of Hawthorne, Florida, was shot and killed near southeast U.S. Highway 301 in 2017, days before her birthday. Nikenson Perin, Blake Jackson, and Keneth Altidor were arrested about seven years later after investigators developed new cell phone and geofencing data. The killing, the location, and the later arrests are the reported history of the case. Monday's verdicts are the judgments the jury entered.

The jury found Perin guilty of first-degree murder and of trespass, and he was sentenced to life in prison. Prosecutors pointed to cell phone and geofencing evidence, and the state's case pointed to Perin as the shooter. That is the prosecution account the jury heard. The life sentence is the judgment on the counts the jury found against him.

The same jury found Blake Jackson guilty of second-degree murder and acquitted him of trespass. It found Keneth Altidor guilty of second-degree murder and acquitted him of trespass. An acquittal is a judgment of not guilty on that count. The second-degree murder verdicts are judgments of guilt on those counts. Jackson and Altidor still await sentencing. Jackson and Altidor are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.