photo by: Mackenzie Clark

The Douglas County Judicial and Law Enforcement Center, which houses Douglas County District Court and a number of other criminal justice services at 111 E. 11th St., is pictured April 8, 2020.

Two Lawrence teens on Tuesday were bound over for trial on attempted murder charges stemming from an incident where a teen woman was struck in the head and neck in what a prosecutor called a “mafia-style shooting.”

Douglas County District Court Judge Kay Huff also allowed for the charges against the two teens — Alejandro Martinez-Diaz and Ontareo X. Jackson, both 18 — to be upgraded to two counts of attempted first-degree murder each. They were each initially facing two counts of attempted second-degree murder in the shooting, which took place May 27 in North Lawrence.

Additionally, another person, Roxanna S. Todd, was bound over for trial on a charge of obstruction of apprehension, a felony, for allegedly helping Jackson and Martinez-Diaz’s brother flee the area after the shooting.

Huff bound the defendants over for trial after hearing evidence that spanned two preliminary hearings, which included testimony from the two alleged victims and several law enforcement officers who investigated the shooting.

On Tuesday, Javier Romero, one of the alleged victims, provided the court with his version of events. He testified that he and his girlfriend were in their vehicle and were being followed through North Lawrence by Martinez-Diaz and Jackson, and that when they reached the intersection of North and North Seventh streets, Martinez-Diaz and Jackson were hanging out of their car with firearms.

“Next thing I know, I was getting shot at,” Romero said.

Romero’s girlfriend, Caylee Nehrbass, was struck in the head and neck in the incident. Romero said he drove her to the hospital and spoke to police about the incident immediately afterward.

At the earlier preliminary hearing in the case, Romero had refused to testify and was held in contempt of court. However, Romero was already in Douglas County Jail custody. He is being held in jail in connection with a separate shooting that occurred in September. In that case, Romero is accused of killing Christian Willis of Wichita on Sept. 8, as the Journal-World previously reported.

Romero said on Tuesday that he was ready to testify and apologized to the court for his refusal to testify at the previous hearing.

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Some of the testimony that Romero gave on Tuesday was at odds with Nehrbass’ testimony at the earlier hearing in October.

At that hearing, Nehrbass testified that Martinez-Diaz and Jackson appeared to be chasing her and Romero when they entered North Lawrence off of the Kansas River bridge and she was worried “something was going to happen.” She said they briefly lost the two men in the neighborhood, but that the two vehicles crossed paths again at the intersection of North Seventh and North streets, where one of the men opened fire.

Nehrbass said she blacked out after she was hit, but woke up while Romero was on the phone with 911 reporting the shooting and was driving her to the hospital. She said she began holding her neck because she was “gushing” blood. She also said she still has bullet fragments in the back of her head that were too small to be removed.

Some details of her testimony during that hearing didn’t match up with information Romero provided to the police after the incident, which officers recounted in court after he refused to testify. The discrepancies included why they were driving through North Lawrence, what route they took to get to North Lawrence, and whether a gun in their vehicle belonged to Romero or one of his friends, among other things.

However, much of Romero’s testimony on Tuesday matched the information he had given police after the incident. While some details were not exactly the same, Romero also testified that he was not completely forthcoming with police when he was initially interviewed after the incident. He said he only told the police what he believed to be “necessary,” because he believed in “street code,” which includes not snitching on others. But he said he was testifying in court on Tuesday because he no longer believed in “street code.”

On Tuesday, he said he noticed he was being followed by a silver sedan while driving into North Lawrence, and that the sedan passed him and its occupants yelled something at him. He said the sedan then turned around to get behind his vehicle and started following him again.

Romero said he turned right into the North Lawrence neighborhood and was heading toward Lyons Park. He said he took several turns to try to lose the vehicle. Eventually, he said he believed he had lost them, but he eventually came across them again at the intersection of North and North Seventh streets.

While Romero said he did not initially realize the vehicle at the intersection was the car following them, he said he realized something was wrong when he entered the intersection to turn left, which required his vehicle to cross in front of the silver sedan.

He said that’s when he saw Jackson lean out of the passenger side of the vehicle with a compact assault-style rifle. He said he had recognized the firearm because he had previously seen it on social media.

Romero said Jackson fired several times at their vehicle and he also briefly saw Martinez-Diaz, the driver of the vehicle, outside of the car holding a handgun. He said he also saw “muzzle flashes” from the handgun, suggesting that Martinez-Diaz was firing it.

Romero said he continued to drive past Martinez-Diaz and Jackson. He said he drove into a ditch because he was ducking and trying to avoid getting hit. He was able to get the car out of the ditch and flee the area. That’s when he said he realized Nehrbass had been hit, called 911 and drove her to the hospital.

Senior Assistant District Attorney Seth Brackman acknowledged some of the details of Romero’s and Nehrbass’ testimony did not match up. But he argued that their testimony on the important details — specifically their recollection of the shooting itself — was consistent.

Meanwhile, Detective Nathan Haig, who led the investigation into the shooting, testified that a Kansas Bureau of Investigation analysis found Jackson’s handprint on the silver sedan. He also testified the vehicle had bullet holes in the windshield and in the hood. He said the vehicle did not have bullet holes in the grille or the headlights, suggesting the bullets were heading away from the vehicle from the passenger seat area.

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In Todd’s portion of the case, Haig and Lawrence police officer Joshua Leitner testified Tuesday that officers had searched her home in the 700 block of North Street with a warrant, looking for firearms and ammunition as part of their investigation in the shooting. Haig said officers found ammunition that belonged to Todd’s grandson.

Leitner said that during the search, Todd told him that Jackson had previously lived at her house, and that her grandson was friends with Jackson and Martinez-Diaz.

He said Todd told him that Jackson and Martinez-Diaz had entered her home, which is down the block from the location of the incident, along with two other teens — Martinez-Diaz’s brother Eduardo and a teen she didn’t know.

Leitner said she told him three of the four teens had firearms, and that they said they had been shot at and had returned fire. In addition, he said she told him that the teens discussed the shooting in her kitchen while they paced around her dinner table, and that they said the police were searching for them.

Leitner said Todd initially told him that the four teens left her house by rushing out the back door. However, he said that when he asked whether she helped any of them leave, she corrected herself and said two of them rushed out the back door and she drove the other two — Jackson and Eduardo Martinez-Diaz — to a residence in a trailer park in a different part of town.

Leitner also said Todd told him that she drove through a neighbor’s yard and a grassy area near her home to leave the neighborhood through a county road east of her residence, which would allow them to leave without passing the officers who were investigating the shooting down the street.

Brackman argued that driving the teens to the trailer park would qualify as assisting them in fleeing from the police.

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Lawrence police arrested Martinez-Diaz on May 28. He was later released from jail after posting a $75,000 cash or surety bond. Jackson was arrested on Aug. 3 and was still in jail custody as of Thursday.

Todd is out of jail custody. She first appeared in court on the charge on Aug. 6 and posted a $2,000 bond on Aug. 10, according to court records.