2 teens charged with shooting 14-year-old to be held in detention

2 teens charged with shooting 14-year-old to be held in detention

(Josh Timothy)


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LOGAN — Two 16-year-old boys accused of shooting a 14-year-old girl in the head and stealing her belongings were ordered Wednesday to remain in detention awaiting their next hearing.

The boys made their first appearance in 1st District Juvenile Court Wednesday on charges of attempted aggravated murder. They will remain in juvenile detention at least until a hearing on Tuesday, court officials reported.

On Feb. 16 the two boys lured Deserae Turner, 14, to join them after school under the guise of buying a knife, then shot her once in the back of the head at close range, according to police. Initially, the boys had plotted to kill Deserae with knives, according to charging documents.

Deserae was found hours later gravely wounded in a dry canal east of Sky View High School by two family friends searching for her. A family spokeswoman said Tuesday that the girl remained in a medically induced coma at Primary Children's Hospital.

Deserae, who is from Amalga, attends ninth grade at North Cache 8-9 Center in Richmond. On the day she disappeared, Deserae had been texting her family on and off throughout the day and was expected to be home by 4 p.m., according to police.

According to charging documents, the two boys gave conflicting accounts of when they had last seen Deserae.

One boy eventually told investigators he had taken a .22-caliber revolver allegedly used to shoot Deserae from under his brother's mattress, then replaced the spent shells before putting it back later, police say. The boy also told police they took Deserae's cellphone, backpack, iPod and cash because of "greed," the charges state, and that he had put the $55 stolen from Deserae under the mattress of his bed and destroyed or threw away the other items.

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Police said the second boy saved a shell casing from the shooting as a "memento," which he displayed on his bedroom windowsill, the charges state.

The two boys are charged with attempted aggravated murder, a first-degree felony; aggravated robbery, a first-degree felony; and four counts of obstruction of justice, a second-degree felony.

The Cache County Attorney's Office says it will seek to have the boys certified to face the charges as adults.

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