Boy, 15, charged with murder

The state will seek to prosecute a 15-year-old boy as an adult on two counts of first-degree murder, Deputy District Attorney Ron Paschal told a judge Thursday.

The Wichita teen pleaded not guilty to felony murder in Sedgwick County juvenile court, stemming from the shootings of a couple whose bodies were found on Thanksgiving Day. The boy was accompanied to court by his parents.

He is the third person charged in the shooting deaths of Pharon Adrian Jackson, 26, and Jessie Foust, 25, the last week in November. The couple's two young children were left in the house unharmed.

After the teen was arrested late Tuesday, his mother told The Eagle on Wednesday that he had been at the house on North Chautauqua with Sam Holton, 18, and Trevor Cox, 17, when the couple was killed during a drug deal. Both Holton and Cox have been charged in the case.

In the complaint filed Thursday in juvenile court, Wichita police Detective Tim Relph wrote that the boy was armed with a gun when Jackson and Foust were killed during a robbery.

Relph's complaint also said the boy took clothing, jewelry, a BlackBerry, an iPod, a cell phone, cigars and four baseball caps from Jackson.

In Kansas, a person who aids in the commission of a felony where someone is killed can be charged with first-degree murder.

Judge Harold Flaigle ordered the boy held in the Sedgwick County Juvenile Detention Center without bond pending another court hearing next Thursday.

Flaigle denied a request by the boy's lawyer, Jerry Jones, to set bond similar to what Cox received from another judge. Cox is being held in lieu of $500,000 bond.

The judge also ordered the boy to have no contact with Holton, Cox or any of the witnesses in the case.

Next week, the boy will be appointed a lawyer to represent him in the state's attempt to try him as an adult. The judge then will be expected to set a date to hear the prosecution's motion.

Under Kansas law, the burden will be on the boy and his lawyer to prove the case should remain in juvenile court.

This story was originally published December 11, 2009 at 12:00 AM.