Jury tags ballplayer's killer a murderer

Chancey Luna is led from the courtroom in shackles and handcuffs after being convicted Friday in Duncan, Okla., in the death of Australian baseball player Christopher Lane.
Chancey Luna is led from the courtroom in shackles and handcuffs after being convicted Friday in Duncan, Okla., in the death of Australian baseball player Christopher Lane.

DUNCAN, Okla. -- An Oklahoma teenager was convicted Friday of first-degree murder in the shooting death of an Australian college baseball player.

The Stephens County jury found Chancey Allen Luna guilty in the Aug. 16, 2013, death of Christopher Lane, 22, who was shot in the back while jogging along a city street in Duncan, Okla.

The jury recommended Luna, now 17, receive life in prison without parole when he is sentenced in June.

Defense attorney Jim Berry had acknowledged that Luna fired the fatal shot from a passing car in which he was riding. But during closing arguments Berry repeatedly noted that Luna was 16 at the time of the shooting and said 16-year-olds take stupid, senseless, thoughtless actions, The Oklahoman reported.

"They work on impulse, hormones, whatever," Berry said. "They do not make a rational decision as you would in your 20s, 30s, 40s and 50s."

Defense attorneys had asked the judge let the jury consider a charge of second-degree murder or first-degree manslaughter, but District Judge Ken Graham refused.

Prosecutors argued that the evidence was clear that the driver, Michael DeWayne Jones, and Luna had planned to kill someone.

"He aimed it right at his back. ... It was a good shot," District Attorney Jason Hicks said.

Lane, from Melbourne, Australia, was in Oklahoma on a college baseball scholarship and was preparing for his senior year at East Central University in Ada. He was visiting his girlfriend and her family in Duncan when he was shot.

Luna did not testify during the trial, and the defense called just one witness, his mother, Jennifer Luna. In her brief testimony, she said her son lived with her parents after he was born and that his father is in jail.

"I wasn't there half the time," Jennifer Luna said.

A co-defendant in the case, James "Bug" Edwards Jr., now 17, testified that he was a passenger in the car when it swerved toward Lane and that Luna fired the shot. Edwards testified as part of a plea agreement in which a first-degree murder charge against him was reduced to a charge of being an accessory after the fact.

Jones, now 19, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder as part of a plea bargain, but refused to testify for the prosecution. He is serving a life sentence with the possibility of parole.

The doctor who performed the autopsy on Lane testified Thursday that even immediate medical attention would not have saved his life.

"Apart from a miracle, no," said Dr. Inas Yacoub, a forensic pathologist with the state medical examiner's office.

Yacoub testified that a .22-caliber bullet was recovered from Lane's body. He said it struck two major blood vessels, puncturing both lungs and breaking two ribs.

"Despite being small, it damaged vital structures and caused significant bleeding," Yacoub told jurors.

The victim's mother, Donna Lane, wiped tears from her face when prosecutors showed jurors a photo of the bloody T-shirt her son was wearing. She and other family members also wept during testimony by witnesses who tried to comfort Lane as he lay dying.

A Section on 04/18/2015

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