The father of a 13-year-old girl who police say went on a multi-state crime spree with her older boyfriend said Tuesday that he is not angry with the 18-year-old.
Cheyenne Phillips, 13, and Dalton Hayes, 18, were arrested late Saturday in Panama City Beach after authorities found them sleeping in a stolen vehicle.
“I don’t have anything against him. I’m not upset with this boy. He’s a boy. And apparently he thinks something of my daughter. He’s just not thinking clearly,” Shawn Phillips told The Associated Press.
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“It ain’t like we were killing cops and robbing stores,” unlike the notorious outlaws Bonnie and Clyde, to whom the couple were compared in some media reports, Hayes said. “We just went on a few high-speed chases.”
Tammy Martin, Hayes’ mother, said the couple had been dating for about three months. She said the girl portrayed herself as being 19. By the time her son realized she was only 13, he was already in love with her, she said.
