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LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Two 15-year-old boys face murder charges for their alleged roles in the shooting death of a Las Vegas marijuana delivery man, the 8 News Now Investigators have learned.
Shelton Beasley, 15; Aren Hicks, 15; Jacorey Magdaleno, 17; and Jonathan Smith, 18, all face murder charges for the September shooting death of Andre Bryant, 33.
A judge recently certified Beasley and Hicks as adults, moving their cases to Las Vegas Justice Court and making their names public.
In Nevada, if a 16-year-old or 17-year-old is charged with murder, the case is automatically moved to the adult system. The process is referred to as certification. Judges can certify children over the age of 14 as adults for any felony offense, including murder, though the process is not automatic.
In October, a Clark County grand jury indicted Magdaleno, Smith and several other alleged gang members for an armed robbery at a 7-Eleven cash-drop and the ensuing deadly infighting among the members of that same criminal enterprise: the Block Boy Gang.
Some members of the gang, also known as the Block Boy Mafia, felt disrespected and excluded when other members stole $26,465 from the convenience store in Las Vegas on Aug. 7. A few weeks later, gangmates raided the home of the girlfriend of a fellow Block Boy, Enrique Nunez, 17, killing him, prosecutors said.
Nunez was shot around 5:20 p.m. on Sept. 1 at an apartment complex on Charleston Boulevard near Rainbow Boulevard, police said. Jomario Clark Jr., 16; Gregory Leonard, 30; Cameron Raye, 19; Magdaleno and Smith are accused of taking part in the Sept. 1 homicide.
On Sept. 9, Beasley, Hicks, Magdaleno and Smith allegedly lured Bryant, a mobile marijuana dealer, to an area near Hicks’ home in Spring Valley and killed him, documents said. The murder happened near Rainshower Drive and Autumn Rain Court, which is near Spring Mountain Road and Buffalo Drive.
A search of Bryant’s car found text messages with a Nevada phone number about meeting at the shooting scene, police said. Bryant placed a call at 9:42 p.m. and dispatchers started receiving calls about the shooting four minutes later.
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Hicks told police he and three other teenagers were at his home the night of the murder, documents said. At some point, the four contacted Bryant about buying marijuana and chose a point on a map.
“All four of them left Aren’s house to meet Andre and all were armed with handguns,” police wrote in documents. “When Andre arrived, [one teenager] approached Andre on the driver’s side while [a second teenager] and [a third teenager] ran to the passenger side of the vehicle. Aren remained near the rear of the vehicle. Aren said he believed the plan was to rob Andre.”
Hicks told police “his handgun was inoperable” as the three other teenagers shot at the car, police said. They shot 25 rounds at the victim, killing him, but missed their target on several occasions and fired some of those bullets into a home, according to court documents.
In addition to the bullets that killed Hicks, other projectiles hit a home and a bedroom window where children slept, police said.
During a search of Hicks’ home, police said they sound a semi-automatic handgun, grand jury transcripts said.
Some of the teenagers are charged with as many as 15 felonies, which all include additional penalties for so-called gang enhancement. Though no certified at the time, Beasley and Hicks were named in grand jury testimony.
“So during Jonathan Smith’s interview he again stated during his interview that Aren Hicks, Jacorey Magdaleno and also Shelton Beasley were all present at the residence prior to the robbery occurring,” a LVMPD homicide detective told the panel. “According to Jonathan it was Jacorey’s drug dealer that they were in communications with. After there was an agreement between them and the victim to meet up, they then went into the area and all four left to the area of the shooting. When they all arrived there he was, we were able to draw a picture at which point in time he showed his location along with all the other three individuals that were involved. During the interview he indicated that Jacorey had shot, Aren Hicks had shot and also Shelton Beasley had shot.”
Beasley and Hicks remained in custody as of Wednesday where a judge ordered them held without bail. Beasley was due to return to Jan. 2. Hicks had a court date scheduled for Thursday. Booking photos for both were not immediately available.
A trial for the indicted defendants was scheduled for July.
