13-year-old charged with murder in Johnson County said he didn’t know gun was loaded
A 13-year-old charged with murder in Johnson County said he didn’t know a gun he and other teens were playing with was loaded when one of them was killed, according to court documents.
The teens had allegedly stolen the gun from a car and were handling it when an Olathe 14-year-old was shot and killed in August. Details of the shooting were provided in an affidavit recently released by the juvenile division of the Johnson County District Court.
Prosecutors charged the 13-year-old with second-degree-murder for the killing of Zavier Mendoza after the early-morning shooting in the 12500 block of South Constance Street.
Because he is a juvenile, the 13-year-old’s name is redacted from the affidavit and his case cannot be viewed on the county’s public court record database.
The teen’s defense attorney, Jerry Merrill, said the case was the result of a “horribly tragic accident.
“We strongly disagree with the charging decision and have set the case for trial,” he said.
Johnson County District Attorney Steve Howe declined to comment.
According to the affidavit, the 13-year-old, Mendoza and two other teens found a handgun while “car hopping,” or stealing from cars, in an Olathe subdivision.
Surveillance video of the area showed Mendoza removing the gun from a car, according to court records.
Mendoza put the gun’s clip in his pocket and the 13-year-old put the round in his pocket, one of the teens told police.
They went back to one of the teen’s homes, where they passed the gun around and “played with” it for 20 to 30 minutes according to prosecutors.
During that time, the teens told police, the 13-year-old pointed the unloaded gun at each of them and pulled the trigger.
At some point, prosecutors said, the 13-year-old gave the gun back to Mendoza, who took the magazine out of the weapon and put it back in before handing it back to the 13-year-old.
One of the other teens told police that he did not believe the 13-year-old realized the magazine was in the gun when he “racked the slide” of the gun, pointed it at Mendoza and shot him.
The 13-year-old told police that he had been pointing the gun at the wall when he shot but that Mendoza moved in front of him. He said he did not know the clip was in the gun.
Police investigation
After the shooting, the teens told police, they immediately ran away and threw the gun into some nearby woods. The 13-year-old claimed he noticed the clip was in the gun as he threw it, according to the affidavit.
The teens agreed to tell police that someone else had shot Mendoza but, prosecutors allege, each eventually admitted that it had been the 13-year-old.
When police arrived on the scene they found a .40 caliber shell casing and a bottle of alcohol near Mendoza, according to charging documents. Police also found a gun matching the shell casing in the woods.
Although the teen said he didn’t know the gun was loaded, the affidavit said, “officers noted that if the magazine was not in the gun, someone would notice that the gun was not loaded.”
Mendoza’s family asked for privacy while they grieve.
“Two young men’s lives have been destroyed, not much else to say on the matter,” Mendoza’s aunt Nicole Stockdale said in a Facebook message to a Star reporter.
According to a GoFundMe page posted shortly after his death, Mendoza was “a good kid” who was looking forward to starting his first year in high school and playing football at Olathe East.
The 13-year-old is scheduled to go to trial Jan. 13.
He is not the first 13-year-old child to be charged with murder in the Kansas City area.
In 2008, two 13-year-olds were charged with murder in separate incidents in Wyandotte County.
Antwuan Taylor was charged as a juvenile and sentenced to the maximum juvenile sentence.
Keaire Brown was charged as an adult and sentenced to life in prison.
This story was originally published November 19, 2019 at 1:56 PM.
