Ove Wilson, 15 when arrested in March 2009, was released last week, given credit for time served in the Acadia Parish jail since his arrest.
His plea concludes proceedings involving him and three other juveniles, each initially charged with at least one murder in the spring of 2009.
Wilson; Kevin Francis, 16; and Ryan Williams, 15 were charged with shooting Eric Beverly, 28, six times outside his North Avenue E residence on March 6, 2009. They were also charged with armed robbery.
Francis, Williams and Claude Morrison, Jr., 15, were charged a month later with the April 1 rape and killing of a woman in her West 14th Street home.
Both crimes were related to drugs and/or drug debts, records indicate.
Williams and Morrison took deals to lesser crimes in that case, Francis was convicted of first-degree murder.
Wilson, who had not been in court in his case since last August, took the deal this month as his trial before Judge Ed Rubin was about to begin.
The case file indicates Wilson gave officers a statement in March 2009 naming those, including himself, allegedly involved in the Beverly killing.
The Beverly charges against the others were dismissed as their cases in the 14th Street murder worked to conclusion.
A visitor at the 14th Street house when the trio broke in told police he, an unidentified man, Francis and Wilson had fought a few days earlier.
When police confronted Wilson about the second killing he, according to the case files, told the other three he wasn’t “taking no rap for this. I told them to take their rap.”
According to the record, police said Wilson told them he had seen Morrison the morning after the 14th Street killing and that Morrison had a gun.
When Wilson asked Morrison if he was going to return the gun, according to Wilson Morrison said, “Naw, man. My boy says if I kill someone, I can keep the gun.”
Wilson said he then asked Williams if he had killed someone and he said, “Yeah, man. Somebody on 14th by the doughnut shop.” Wilson told police the culprits were Francis, Morrison and Williams.
Morrison pleaded to a reduced charge of attempted second-degree murder and was sentenced to 20 years, with no early release possible.
Williams pleaded to attempted armed robbery, attempted first-degree murder and forcible rape and got 12 years.
A condition of both pleas was they would would testify against Francis. When the that time came, they reneged. Wilson also invoked the 5th Amendment at Francis’ trial.
Francis was convicted in a bench trial before Rubin and sentenced to life for the murder plus 90 years for the rape.
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