Three teens and a 20-year-old have been indicted in the death of an Arizona 16-year-old who was found badly beaten outside of a Halloween party last year, the Maricopa County prosecutor said.
The beating of Preston Lord, 16, who died two days after he was found on a road in Queen Creek on Oct. 28, prompted calls for more police action against group violence by teenagers in that and other nearby cities.
“These four indictments are just the start,” Queen Creek Police Chief Randy Brice said at a news conference. He said the police department is still working to make more arrests.
The defendants — 18-year-old William Owen Hines and 20-year-old Dominic Turner, as well as two 17-year-olds — are all charged with first-degree murder, or in the alternative, second-degree murder, as well kidnapping, Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell said. Turner is also charged with robbery, she said.
All four indicted in Preston’s death are being charged as adults, Mitchell said. NBC News is not naming the 17-year-olds because they are minors.
Mitchell called the investigation “extremely complex,” and said it involved thousands of pages of police reports and around 600 videos.
Preston was found in a roadway at around 9:49 p.m. on Oct. 28, police said, after officers had previously been dispatched to the area for a reported juvenile disturbance. He was taken to a hospital and died two days later.
At the time of that earlier call, at around 9:07 p.m., officers saw a large number of juveniles leaving but observed no illegal activity, and they went to another call, police have said.
Last month, the medical examiner delivered a final report that ruled the manner of Preston’s death a homicide. A cause of death has not been released by authorities.
The criminal cases in Preston’s killing did not appear to be in online Maricopa County court records, and it was not clear if any defendants had attorneys who could speak on their behalf. An attorney for Hines in two other cases said he…
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