Deputies from Wake County have arrested two local teenagers, accusing them of killing a married couple in early January. The couple’s bodies were found in their Raleigh home. The two arrested are a 16-year-old male and another male who is not yet 16.
In addition to being charged with murder, the youths were charged with being in possession of stolen property, having a gun with an obliterated serial number and burglary in the first degree. Police claimed that the two arrested were also involved in unspecified gang activities.
The boys’ cases will be heard in different courts initially. North Carolina law treats teens 16 or older as adults. If convicted, the boy’s age will save him from death row but not from a lifetime in prison.
The younger boy’s case will start in juvenile court. What happens next depends in part on his age. If he is 13 or older, for example, his case would likely transfer to adult court. If the murder and burglary charges stick, if his attorney cannot get the charges reduced, none of the juvenile system’s diversion programs will be open to the boy.
Law enforcement continues to investigate the circumstances of the crime. Investigators indicated that they believe that the murders may have been gang-related but that neither husband nor wife was believed to be gang members. Police also said that there was no known prior connection between them and the two boys who were arrested. Both of the victims had worked at the same restaurant for several years.
A law enforcement spokesperson stated that the killing may have been related to an earlier shooting in Raleigh on Dec. 4, 2012, but did not reveal any details of what, if any, basis they had for that statement. The arrests were made by officers from the Wake County Sheriff’s office.
Source: Garner News, “Arrest made in murders of local couple,” Stephanie Eaton Harvie, Feb. 1, 2013
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