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Last updated on Tuesday, March 4, 2014
(WASHINGTON) - A fourth person is being charged in the shooting of 17-year-old Devan Burris.
14-year-old Wyatt Byers is being charged with obstruction of justice for hiding the gun used to kill Burris.
Byers could be sentenced to 90 days in a juvenile detention center.
Byers told the Washington Times Herald that he was protecting a friend and did not know the gun was used in the crime, or he would have turned it over to police.
According to police, on the night of Dec. 6, 18-year-old Logan Evans is accused of firing his .410 shotgun during a drug deal that turned bad between him, Lucas Benjamin, Burris, and another unnamed male in the parking lot of Ebenezer Baptist Church.
Burris, who had suffered a shotgun wound to the neck, was put in a vehicle and was taken to Daviess Community Hospital and dumped outside the facility. He later died.
Byers lives across the street from the church. After the shooting, Evans and Benjamin came to the home. While there Byers' mother Christal called police.
According to court documents, Evans allegedly gave the gun to Byers and told him to hide the weapon.
Byers told police he had no idea that anyone had been shot or what had happened. He told police that Evans, his friend, was "freaking out" and told him to hide the gun and left the house. No one else in the home knew that Byers had hid the gun.
Washington police executed a search warrant at the home on December 8. That is when Byers says he found out what happened but still didn't know who had fired the fatal shot. Police didn't find the gun.
Police executed a second "no-knock" warrant at the home and that is when they found the gun, which was still in the ceiling.
Byers and his legal guardian were then taken to the station and questioned.
Evans and 19-year-old Benjamin plead guilty after accepting plea deals in Daviess Superior Court last week. Evans pleaded guilty to murder, but maintains he did not mean to shoot Burris or kill him.
Benjamin has pleaded guilty to attempted dealing in meth and assisting a criminal.
Both men will be sentenced later this month, if the plea deals are accepted.
Evans will face 45 years and Benjamin will face 30 years. A third person, Heaven Berry, was charged with providing assistance to another who committed the crime of murder and is awaiting trial.
Byers, who has been in trouble before, was ordered to appear in Daviess Juvenile Court on Feb. 6 on a petition alleging delinquency and has another hearing on March 13. He told the Times Herald he is scared about what will happen next.
According to court records Burris asked Benjamin to meet him alone to purchase a gram of meth. They told detectives that Burris had tried to steal from them in the past. Witness interviews told police that Burris and the other person at the drug deal were planning on doing that again. When police asked Byers why the two went to the deal if they knew Burris was going to "rip them off." Byers replied "money."
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