Three teens were caught, arrested and charged hours after they stole a car and killed a 6-year-old boy who was sleeping in the back seat. Kingston Frazier's mother, Ebony Archie, left him in the back seat of her car with the engine running when she went into a supermarket in Jackson, Mississippi on Thursday, May 18. The abandoned car with the dead boy still inside was found in a muddy ditch.
The little boy was reported missing around 1 a.m. on Thursday after a man was captured on security video driving his mother's 2000 silver Toyota Camry from the supermarket's parking lot as soon as the woman went into the store.
At supermarket
People are wondering why the mother was out that time of the morning with her son sleeping in the back seat. Family members say the mother had picked up her son from his grandmother after she had been out celebrating her birthday. She stopped by the all-night supermarket because she needed to buy supplies for Kingston's kindergarten graduation the next day.
Teen charged
About nine hours after the car was stolen, a man reported the car had been found about 15 miles away. It was discovered the sleeping boy had been fatally shot. The little boy's body was taken to the state crime lab so an autopsy could be done. Madison County Coroner Alex Breeland determined that the kindergartener had been shot multiple times.
The mother collapsed when she was given the news about her son's death.
Because of the video footage and witnesses, the teens were identified as D'Allen Washington, Dwan Wakefield, and Byron McBride. McBride's age was revealed as 19, but the other two teens are 17. All three have been charged with capital murder as adults even though McBride was the one reported to have actually pulled the trigger.
Capital murder
The murder took place in Mississippi, a state where 17-year-olds can be tried as adults. While all three are charged with capital murder, only McBride could face the death penalty. That is because of his age and not necessarily because he was the one who shot the boy. In 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court passed a law that the death penalty starts for people at age 18.
So that means if one of the 17-year-old boys had shot Kingston, they would not face the death penalty like McBride.
All three of the teenagers are being held without bail in Madison County. They are scheduled to appear in court on Monday morning. Authorities don't have the gun used to kill Kingston, but they say they have enough evidence against the three teens without the murder weapon.
