photo by: Contributed

Brianna Higgins

Updated at 3:44 p.m. Wednesday, May 8

OLATHE — A teenager who recklessly shot a 15-year-old Lawrence girl to death while playing with guns pleaded guilty on Wednesday to a murder charge and a firearm violation.

The teen, Davon D. Washington, 17, of Kansas City, Missouri, was charged in Johnson County Juvenile Court with one felony count of second-degree unintentional but reckless murder and one misdemeanor count of being a juvenile in possession of a firearm, according to charging documents.

Washington pleaded guilty to both of those charges, and the court allowed the case to be adjudicated through the juvenile justice system. However, the court also ruled that Washington would be sentenced as an adult if he failed to meet the terms of his juvenile sentence. The plea agreement specified a 123-month prison sentence, over 10 years, if he fails to meet the terms of the juvenile sentence.

Washington agreed to be sentenced under Extended Jurisdiction Juvenile Prosecution, or EJJP, which allows the court to impose both the juvenile sentence and the adult sentence at the same time. The juvenile court system can detain a child until he is 22.5 years old with an additional six months of supervision afterward. Kansas law recommends a minimum of two years in custody.

If Washington is given a juvenile sentence up to the age of 22.5 he will be eligible for 30% good time and could be released when he is about 21 years old and would then be subject to supervision or probation until he is 23. If he violates the terms of that probation, he would then serve the 10-year term.

The shooting is alleged to have occurred on Jan. 19 near the 16900 block of West 127th Street in Olathe, as the Journal-World reported. Brianna Higgins, a sophomore at Lawrence High School, was shot and was then driven to Olathe Medical Center around 11 p.m.; she was declared dead a short time later.

Prosecutor Chelsea Beshore, describing the factual basis for the plea, said that Higgins was shot at point-blank range in the head by Washington. She said that Higgins was in the driver’s seat of a car outside an apartment complex with Washington and another man, Quincy Nghom. Washington, who was in the front passenger seat, and Nghom, who was in the back, were “playing,” as Beshore put it, with two firearms, a Glock 23 and a Glock 43, one of which had an extended capacity magazine.

Washington and Nghom, an adult whose age was not provided, were tossing the pistols back and forth in the car and “dry firing” the handguns, Beshore said. Dry firing a gun means to fire it while it is unloaded.

Washington then pointed one of the guns at Higgins’ head and pulled the trigger, firing one round, Beshore said. Beshore did not specify how the bullet was loaded into the gun or who is alleged to have put the live round in the gun.

“(Washington) in a joking manner raised the gun and shot Brianna at point-blank range,” Beshore said.

Higgins was hit in the head just above her ear, and she died from injuries to her brain, Beshore said.

Nghom then fled the scene while two juvenile girls came out of a nearby apartment and helped move Higgins from the driver’s seat. The girls and Washington drove to a gas station before driving Higgins to the hospital, where she was pronounced dead, Beshore said. She did not specify why the teens stopped at the gas station.

While the state believes the shooting was an accident, it pursued charging Washington as an adult in part because there is evidence that Washington has experience with buying or selling firearms, and during the investigation Washington attempted to blame someone else for the shooting, Beshore said. She said police recovered both firearms, which had blood on them.

There are no records of Nghom being arrested or charged in connection with the case.

The hearing was attended by both Washington’s and Higgins’ families. Members of Higgins’ family could be heard crying throughout the hearing.

Prior to entering his plea, Washington told the court that he “didn’t intend to harm anyone.” His attorney, Mark Hartman, told the court that Washington has no prior criminal convictions.

Hartman also represented Derrick Del Reed, who was recently acquitted of murder in the shooting death of Kamarjay Shaw, a Lawrence 14-year-old. Shaw and Higgins were reportedly close friends and are buried next to each other.

The state had made a motion to try Washington as an adult, which would have significantly increased his potential punishment if he were convicted. A hearing was scheduled in April for Judge Brenda Cameron to make that decision, but that hearing was canceled and a plea hearing was scheduled.

Cameron had previously ordered Washington to be detained on the recommendation of the state because of Washington’s turbulent home and school life and because the gun alleged to have killed Higgins was “not a simple run of the mill firearm.”

Washington remains in custody and is scheduled to be sentenced on June 28.