Two teenage boys allegedly planned to “get rid” of a 14-year-old girl because one of the boys was annoyed by her Snapchat messages, police say.
The boys are accused of attempted murder, aggravated robbery, and obstructing justice for attacking Deserae Turner and leaving her to die by a canal in Smithfield, Utah February 16, the Salt Lake Tribune reported.
In a preliminary hearing Tuesday, a police officer read a statement from one of the suspects describing how he and his friend planned to murder Turner.
“I just didn’t want anything to do with Snapchatting her anymore,” the unidentified suspect wrote in his statement, according to KSL.com.
The teen said the murder plot began as a joke when one of the teens complained to the other defendant about Turner Snapchatting and texting him too often. The defendant responded, “It would be pretty easy to get rid of her.”
Cache County Sheriff’s Deputy Brian Groves said at the hearing that the two teens plotted to kill her by either using a knife to slit her throat or shooting her with a gun.
Turner allegedly met them at the canal February 16 under the impression that she was going to buy a knife off of them. One of the teens allegedly shot her in the head when she turned around, the Deseret News reported.
Two women found Turner a day later while searching for her body after her family reported her missing.
Turner survived the shooting but remains in critical condition at a Salt Lake City hospital.
Turner reportedly considered the boys, who are unnamed because they are minors, her friends.
She was reportedly left in disbelief when she woke up in the hospital to find out the two boys allegedly shot her in the head and left her to die in a canal.
A juvenile court ruled Tuesday that one of the 16-year-olds’ trials could move forward because of sufficient evidence of the crime. The other 16-year-old is due in court Wednesday.
Another hearing that will determine whether the teens are tried as children or adults is set for May 8.