London Thomas's Sister Takes the Stand at Pendergrass Preliminary Hearing

The preliminary hearing in Michigan v. Jaylen and Charla Pendergrass started today, and the prosecution's first witness was the person who may have been the last to see London Thomas alive outside of that house on Carlisle Street.

Her older sister.

Miss Hatcher is 20 years old. London would be 18 right now. They were close. That came through in every answer she gave on the stand today. And what she described is a timeline that should make everyone pay attention.

The Night of April 4-5, 2025

The sister testified that she picked London up from their mother's house, and the two of them spent the evening at a relative's house in Highland Park. London may have had a shot of liquor but was not drunk. At some point, London asked her sister to take her to Jaylen Pendergrass's grandparents' house in Inkster instead of spending the night together. It was a spur of the moment decision. There was no plan. Jaylen didn't know she was coming.

They arrived at the house on Carlisle Street around 4 a.m. London got out of the car without her things. She went straight to the back door and started knocking. Nobody answered.

For about 15 minutes, the two sisters knocked on doors and windows. The sister checked the front door for a spare key. Nothing. They knocked on the basement windows because that's where Jaylen's bedroom was. Still nothing.

Then the sister went back to the car. Her 4-month-old baby was crying. Her baby's father was overwhelmed. And London's phone was ringing in the back seat. It had been ringing since they got out of the car.

She answered it. It was Jaylen.

He asked if that was London at the door. The sister told him to open the door, that it was late, that she had her baby out there. Eventually London came back to the car, grabbed her purse, her phones, her iPad, and Jaylen's phone. She walked to the back of the house.

But it wasn't the last time she saw her at all. London FaceTimed her sister as she was driving away. On that call, the sister could see London was outside the house, then she turned the camera to show Jaylen standing at the door. The screen door was closed but the main door was open. London went inside.

A second FaceTime call came later, after the sister got back to her baby father's house. On that call, London was sitting on a bed in the basement. The sister recognized it immediately. Red LED lights on the ceiling. She'd been in that room before. London did not appear injured or upset.

A text message also came through to the baby father's phone. The content was discussed over hearsay objections, but it referenced someone saying "she doesn't trust me." The sister testified this came within an hour of getting home. Then they went to sleep.

The Next Day

The sister woke up around 3:30 or 4:00 in the afternoon. About 30 minutes later, she called London. Straight to voicemail. Texted her. No response. Messaged her on social media. Nothing.

That's when the alarm bells went off. London never let her phone die. That was just who she was. The sister's baby father suggested checking Find My. When she pulled it up, London's phone was pinging near an elementary school by some trailer parks in Westland, Michigan.

Not Inkster, where she'd been dropped off. Not Redford, where she was supposed to have a 10 a.m. job orientation at a Little Caesars. Westland. An open field.

The sister called the Little Caesars. London never showed up for orientation. She dropped her baby off at her mother's house and drove to Westland. Spent almost an hour searching, asking people in the trailer park area if they'd seen her sister. Nothing.

Back to Carlisle Street

Then she went to the house in Inkster. And this is where things get interesting from a legal standpoint.

Charlotte Pendergrass, Jaylen's mother and co-defendant, was there. She was outside in the backyard, on the phone, walking down the driveway as the sister arrived. The sister asked where London was. Charlotte's first answer: she hadn't seen her.

But that story changed during the same conversation. Charlotte started saying there had been "a lot going on," that there was yelling, and that London had "walked off." She mentioned she'd offered London Ubers before in the past to get home.

The sister asked to speak to Jaylen. Charlotte refused. Said he had work and she wasn't waking him up.

Eventually Charlotte went inside and came back with Jaylen. He barely spoke. The sister described him as "very down," almost shy. When asked where London was, he said he didn't know. But when the sister asked him directly, "If your mother wasn't here, would you have taken London home?" he said yes. Because Charlotte, according to the testimony, didn't let him take her home.

Then Charlotte tried to leave. Said she needed to pick up medicine for the grandparents. The sister followed her to a Dollar General nearby. Charlotte came up to the car and asked if they had $10, laughing, saying she forgot her purse. Then they all went back to Carlisle Street, where police had arrived.

What the Defense Did

Both defense attorneys had their turns. Charlotte's attorney, Terry Johnson, pushed on the sister's limited prior interactions with Charlotte, suggesting she didn't know her well enough to assess whether she was nervous or lying. Fair point for the defense to make.

Johnson also established that London's visit was completely unplanned, that no one called ahead, that they showed up at 4 a.m. and just started knocking without announcing themselves. He walked through the fact that the sister only knocked on the back door, never the front. The implication being: this was not a normal, expected visit.

Jaylen's attorney, Adam Clements, went a different direction. He focused on London's state of mind and potential intoxication. Through an impeachment with a prior detective interview, the sister acknowledged London may have had a shot of liquor that evening. She wasn't drunk, the sister maintained, but she'd been drinking.

Then came the question that landed hardest. Clements asked if the sister had ever known London to use methamphetamine. She said no. He asked if it would surprise her if London tested positive for methamphetamine. She said yes.

That question doesn't prove anything on its own. But it plants a seed. If the defense has toxicology showing methamphetamine in London's system, they're building toward an argument about erratic behavior, altered judgment, maybe even a theory that London left the house on her own in a state the sister wouldn't recognize as normal.

What I'm Watching

This is a preliminary hearing, not a trial. The standard here is probable cause, not beyond a reasonable doubt. The prosecution needs to show there's enough to move forward. But even at this stage, the sister's testimony laid out several things worth tracking.

First, the timeline. London was confirmed inside that basement at some point in the early morning of April 5th. FaceTime showed it. Red LED lights and all. By the next afternoon, her phone was dead and pinging miles away in an open field. Something happened in that house between those two moments.

Second, Charlotte's behavior. The story changed in real time during one conversation. First she hadn't seen London. Then London "walked off" after some kind of confrontation. She refused to let the sister talk to Jaylen. Then she tried to leave the scene herself. The sister followed her. None of that proves anything by itself, but it's the kind of behavior prosecutors love to put in front of a judge.

Third, the methamphetamine question. The defense didn't ask it for no reason. If they have toxicology, they're going to use it. The question is what argument they're building with it.

This is the first witness. The state is building a foundation. More testimony is coming. I'll be covering all of it.

📺 WATCH THE FULL TESTIMONY London Thomas's Sister Tells the Story of Her Final Hours | Pendergrass