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Last updated on Friday, February 28, 2014
(WASHINGTON) - An 18-year-old Washington teen says he is not guilty of the murder of Devan Burris, but that he accepts plea deal.
Logan Evans signed a plea agreement and if that plea is accepted by Judge Dean Sobecki, Evans will be sentenced March 27. He could face up to 45 years in prison.
According to court records, on the night of December 6, Evans and Lucas Benjamin met Burris and another person in the parking lot of Ebenezer Baptist Church on Oak Grove Road so they could sell meth to Burris.
During that drug deal, Burris and the other man allegedly assaulted Benjamin and that is when Evans pulled his .410 shotgun and shot Burris in the neck and face.
Burris was then taken by his friends to Daviess Community Hospital where he was left on the sidewalk. He died from his wounds at the hospital.
According to The Washington Times Herald report, Evan's mother, Sheila Evans, did not want her son to take the plea, saying prosecutors only gave him 24 hours to make a decision.
Evans' attorney Timothy Demotte says Evan maintains he is innocence in the shooting saying he didn't intend to shot anyone.
But accourding to state law, the shooting was done in the act of another crime.
Indiana law has what is called the felony murder rule - stating that if a shooting or death occurs during the commission of another crime - the meth deal- those involved can be charged with murder. And self-defense cannot be used because Evans was in the act of committing another crime - the drug deal.
Michael Chestnut who is representing Lucas Benjamin, says Benjamin has been offered a plea agreement by the Daviess County Prosecutor's Office and is conferring with his client. Benjamin is facing a charge of conspiracy to commit murder.
Another person charged in the case Heaven Berry has not yet been offered a deal. Berry is charged with providing assistance to another who committed murder.
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