Posted on Mon, Oct. 12, 2009

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Augusta teen's shooting death 'an accident,' wife of suspect says

BY DEB GRUVER

The Wichita Eagle

AUGUSTA — Megun Jarvi stands in the living room of the house where 14-year-old Andrea Young died Friday night. Jarvi points to a bullet hole in the railing of the basement stairwell, then to the blood on the carpeted stairs.

She tells her 3-year-old son the blood is juice.

"It's just juice," she says, again and again.

Her husband, from whom she has been separated for a few months, is in jail. Police say Morgan L. Jarvi was booked into the Butler County jail on suspicion of involuntary manslaughter and hosting a party where underage drinking occurred. No charges have been filed in the case.

Andrea's death, Megun Jarvi says, was an accident.

Police say Andrea was shot while Morgan Jarvi was showing someone his gun.

Megun Jarvi, who was not at the party, says her husband was in the living room. Andrea was on the stairs. The gun went off. The bullet hit Andrea.

"I want people to know what really happened," Megun Jarvi says. "It was an accident. He didn't mean to pull the trigger. It was an accident. That's what we want people to know."

The party at the house in the 900 block of Wirth was for Jourdan Roberts' 16th birthday.

Jourdan Roberts says she was in a bathroom downstairs when she heard the gunshot.

"Someone screamed, 'What the (expletive)' " Jourdan says.

Jourdan saw Andrea on the stairs. She says Andrea's eyes were closed.

"I started screaming. I didn't know what to do," she says. "I called 911. I was hysterical. I said, 'My friend's been shot. Send an ambulance. Help her.' "

Some of the people at the party left immediately, say Jourdan and Dylan Jarvi, Morgan's 16-year-old sister.

Police interviewed Jourdan and Dylan, they say.

They described Andrea as a beautiful, funny girl.

A freshman at Augusta High School, Andrea "always cracked jokes," Jourdan says.

Jourdan and Dylan didn't go to school today.

Megun broke down crying, talking about her husband's arrest.

"Our phones won't stop," she says. "People are horrible."

Augusta Police Chief Tyler Brewer declined today to offer more details about the party, saying that police are having problems with what he called phantom witnesses after weekend media reports about the shooting.

He did say that his department received no complaints from neighbors about the party.

In an earlier interview over the weekend, Brewer said roughly 20 to 30 people had attended the party. Jourdan and Dylan say about 12 people were there.

The shooting is Augusta's first criminal death case since 2001.

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