New court documents identify the gunman among three teenagers charged with the murder of a 16-year-old Atlee High School student in a drug deal at his home last month.
The documents also spell out the roles of the two other murder defendants, plus a fourth, uncharged person who allegedly brokered the drug transaction.
Authorities close to the investigation stressed that the case is still under intense scrutiny and a search warrant filed today shows that investigators are seeking DNA evidence to help corroborate statements about who allegedly shot and killed Brett A. Wells in his home on Verdi Lane in Hanover County the night of Jan. 21.
The search warrant asserts: "Xavia Highsmith stated he held the gun and shot both of the victims during the incident." Wells died while the other victim suffered a non-life threatening injury to the torso.
The search warrant states that another defendant, 19-year-old Da'Von T. Byars, "stated he took possession of the firearm after the incident and placed it under a couch in the backyard" of a home in the 1400 block of Mechanicsville Turnpike in Richmond. That is Byars' home.
Highsmith, 18, of the 2000 block of North 28th Street in Richmond, was in the Wells home at the time of the shooting with Byars, according to the court docuements, while a third defendant, Kevin M. Drayton Jr., 18, of the 8000 block of Rollins Lane in Mechanicsville, was waiting inside a car outside the home when Wells was shot, according to the new court filings. Until his arrest, Drayton was a varsity basketball polayer at Atlee High School.
All three defendants are due in court later this week to determine their attorney status. No trial date has been set.
(This has been a breaking news update. Check back for more details as they become available. Read more in tomorrow's Richmond Times-Dispatch.)
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