A teenager accused of shooting dead a six-year-old boy he found in the back of car he allegedly stole has been charged with murder.
Byron McBride, 19, was indicted Wednesday on capital murder in the May 18 death of Kingston Frazier.
The youngster was found dead in a rural area in Jackson, Mississippi after his mother’s car was stolen from a parking lot while she was shopping for groceries.
When he saw the boy in the back seat, McBride allegedly phoned his friend Dwan Wakefield and said he was going to ‘off the child’.
The youngster was found dead in a rural area in Jackson, Mississippi after his mother’s car was stolen from a parking lot while she was shopping for groceries
McBride’s father said in court: ‘My son did not kill that baby. He did not kill that baby.’
Referring to the possible death penalty, he added: ‘But y’all gone kill my son. Y’all gone kill my son.’
McBride has been jailed without bond since his arrest hours after Kingston was killed.
Teenagers D’Allen Washington and Dwan Wakefield were also arrested over the killing in May on charges of accessory after the fact.
It was not immediately clear whether they have been indicted. Wakefield is out of jail on a $275,000 bond.
He previously recalled how McBride phoned him and told him was going to ‘off the child’ when he discovered he was in the back seat of the stolen car.
McBride’s lawyer claimed the teenager meant he would drop the child off somewhere.
Washington and Wakefield were 17 at the time. In Mississippi, 17-year-olds accused of capital murder are tried as adults so prosecutors could seek the death penalty if the three are convicted.
Frazier had gone missing after 1am on a Thursday when a man took the car from the parking lot of a Kroger supermarket in Jackson.
About nine hours later, following a child-abduction alert and widespread publicity, a man reported the Camry was on the side of a dead-end road in the suburb of Gluckstadt.
Frazier’s mother Ebony Archie is seen above collapsing after learning of her sons’ death on Thursday
A Mississippi Highway Patrol tow truck hauls away the car in which Kingston was found dead
Officials publicly announced the boy’s death while surrounded by grieving family members.
‘A six-year-old is gone,’ said Kingston’s cousin, Kolby Irby. ‘His mother has to deal with this. That’s her baby.’
The mother, Ebony Archie, left the boy in the car and left the car running while she went inside the store, Hinds County sheriff’s deputies said.
The store’s parking lot is patrolled by sheriff’s deputies, including one in a golf cart.
After Archie left, a silver Honda Civic drove up, a man got out, and drove away in the Camry.
A child-abduction alert was played repeatedly on local newscasts and police and family members issued public appeals for help.
The car was eventually found 14 miles to the north, just off Interstate 55, which also runs in front of the supermarket.
Family members were visibly distraught after learning the six-year-old had been found dead in May