Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
DUNCAN, Okla. (AP) — An Oklahoma man has admitted his role in the fatal drive-by shooting of an Australian college baseball player and has been ordered to attend prison boot camp pending his sentencing next year.
Eighteen-year-old James Francis "Bug" Edwards Jr. pleaded guilty Wednesday to being an accessory to murder in the killing of 22-year-old Christopher Lane, The Oklahoman reported (http://bit.ly/1JW0jAu ).
Edwards faces up to 45 years in prison. A judge on Wednesday ordered him to the boot camp in Alva. His sentencing hearing is scheduled for June 14, 2016.
Edwards backed out of a deal to serve 20 years in prison followed by 20 years on probation. He instead will let Stephens County District Judge Ken Graham determine how long he will spend in prison after finishing the boot camp next year.
Lane, from Melbourne, Australia, was in Oklahoma on a baseball scholarship. He was preparing for his senior year at East Central University in Ada and was visiting his girlfriend in Duncan in August 2013 when he was shot.
Duncan's police chief has said the driver, Michael DeWayne Jones, revealed the motive for the shooting was boredom. Another suspect, Oddesse John David Barnes, admitted he took the murder weapon from the shooter and threw it into some tall grass at an apartment complex.
Edwards admitted in his guilty plea that he made a call from jail in September 2013 asking a friend to hide the .22-caliber revolver. The friend did not have the gun, which was never recovered.
Jones, 19, of Duncan, is serving life in prison after pleading guilty to second-degree murder. Barnes, 23, of Duncan, is serving 12 years as an accessory to murder.
The shooter, Chancey Allen Luna, 18, of Duncan, is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole.
___
Information from: The Oklahoman, http://www.newsok.com
Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
