The Arizona high school of one of the teenagers accused of beating Preston Lord to death has denied it received a huge donation from the suspect’s parents.
American Leadership Academy (ALA) student Talan Renner, 17, is one of seven young men accused of beating Lord, 16, to death outside a Halloween party last year in Queen Creek, a suburb of Phoenix.
He and the other suspects are believed to have ties to the so-called Gilbert Goons – a group of mostly wealthy white kids who have been terrorizing the area for years.
The charter school has been slammed for allowing Talan to play a football game after he became a suspect, even naming him ‘player of the game.’
ALA was further criticized after Talan’s former stepmom Lauri Spiker told police his dad, millionaire businessman Travis Renner, often stepped in to save his problematic sons from trouble.
Spiker told police Travis ‘once made a $10,000 to ALA and sponsored sports programs through his business, One Stop Nutrition, to prevent them expelling Talan.’