BY Laura Bult
One of the four Oklahoma teens convicted of fatally shooting an Australian baseball player to overcome a boring afternoon in 2013, was sentenced to 25 years in prison this week.
James Francis Edwards, Jr., now 18, was the last of his friends to be sentenced for murdering Christopher Lane, 22, in a random drive-by shooting while the college baseball star was out jogging in Duncan, Okla.
Edwards, who pleaded guilty in September to being an accessory to the athlete’s murder, will serve less than half of the 25-year sentence after 10 yearsof it was suspended and after receiving credit for the nearly three years he already served during his trial.
Edwards was originally charged with first degree murder but the charge was reduced after he agreed to testify against his accomplices: Chancey Allen Luna, Michael DeWayne Jones, and Odesse John David Barnes.
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The teens’ victim, from Melbourne, Australia, was living in Oklahoma at the time of his Aug. 16, 2013 murder as a student-athlete on scholarship at East Central University in Ada, Okla.
Edwards, an Oklahoma teenager, has been sentenced to more than a decade in prison for his role in the 2013 shooting death of an Australian baseball player.
(Sue Ogrocki/AP)
He was visiting his girlfriend in Duncan, located about 80 miles southwest of Oklahoma City, when he was shot.
The boys were all riding in a car together when Luna, 18, shot Lane while he was out for a run because the teens had been bored and only wanted to scare the baseball player, according to initial police reports.
Instead, a single, lethal bullet struck the college athlete in his back. Luna and his friends sped off and left Lane to die in the street.
Luna was sentenced to life in prison without parole; Jones is serving life; and Barnes was sentenced to 12 years in prison, according to the Duncan Banner.
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This combination file photo made with booking photos provided by the Stephens County, Okla., Sheriffs Department, shows, from left, James Francis Edwards Jr., 15, Michael Dewayne Jones, 17, and Chancey Allen Luna, 16, all of Duncan, Okla.
(Uncredited/AP)
Edwards’ defense attorney, Al Hoch, tried to get a lower sentence for his client, who he claims shouldn’t be held responsible for the heinous crime.
“He just happened to get in a car with some people that he shouldn’t have. My suggestion is five years with a long suspension to make sure (he stays out of trouble.”
Edwards testified this week that he regretted his reckless actions and didn’t intend to murder Lane.
“The reason why I did it, I was put in a predicament I was never put on before,” he said. “I was honestly scared. I’m sorry for everything that happened. I didn’t get in that car to kill (Lane.) I’m sorry and I show remorse. Regardless of what they say, I was a dumb 15-year-old. I’m a grown man now,” he said.
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Edwards admitted that he made a phone call from jail asking a friend to hide the .22 revolved used in the crime. The friend did not have the gun and it was never found, the Duncan Banner reporter.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/okla-teens-killed-australian-man-25-years-article-1.2677479