VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — A judge said that a teenager accused of murdering a restaurant employee at the Oceanfront can stand trial as an adult.
The judge's decision came Wednesday after he heard testimony from witnesses, including a detective assigned to the case.
Croc's worker Cole Grant left work on May 8 with some of his fellow restaurant employees. One of those workers said the group was pulling out of the business' parking lot in a truck shortly before 11 p.m. when the workers smelled marijuana burning. They saw three teenagers in the lot.
The worker, who was driving, testified that someone in the truck told the teenagers, "You can't be smoking that out there." He said as he got ready to pull out of the lot onto 19th Street, he saw a flash in his rearview mirror and that the back window of the truck shattered. He told the court he hit the gas and drove to Zoe's, a business near Croc's. That's when he and the others realized that Grand had been shot in the head.
Grant died there.
A detective took the stand Wednesday and said that shortly after the shooting, police found the three teenagers casually walking up 18th Street. The detective interviewed the teenagers. She said a 16-year-old boy in the group told her, "I did it. I did it. I did it."
She testified that she asked the 16-year-old if he pointed the gun at the truck and pulled the trigger, to which he responded, "Yes." The boy explained someone in the truck called him a "straight bitch" and that scared him, so he wanted to scare the people right back. That's when he fired at the group. He told the detective he didn't mean to hit anyone.
The judge certified the charges against the teenager to the grand jury. The charges are Second Degree Murder and Use of a Firearm in Commission of a Felony.
The next grand jury session is November 4. The trial is set to begin on December 11 at which time the teenager's name will be made public. For the time being, the 16-year-old boy will stay in juvenile detention.