Capital murder indictments for a 15-year-old Alabama boy are on their way back to Houston County grand jurors, though future indictments are a near certainty.
The issue is grand jurors issued those indictments in the shootings of two young women while a ruling certifying his adult status is on appeal.
Related: 14-Year-Old Alabama Murder Suspect Arrested For Allegedly Killing 2 Women
Dothan Police charged Vincent Lamar Oliver, Jr. with the murders of 21-year-old Jasmine Bean and 20-year-old Ja’Lexius Wells.
At the time he was only 14 years old.
The two women’s bodies were found in a Dothan home on November 20, 2022. Police say the women were attending a social gathering.
As officers searched for Oliver in the hours after those shootings, Houston County Circuit Judge Butch Binford allowed police to reveal his name, despite his age, because he believed the teen posed a significant public threat.
After his arrest, his case became private because of his juvenile status, as Alabama law requires, and remained that way until Binford’s ruling certifying his adult status in the spring.
Oliver would have been released by his 21st birthday if he had not ruled that way.
A court hearing revealed that he fired the shots because one of those victims either “hit or struck” his sore foot.
His adult certification this week appears to make Oliver among the youngest—if not the most youthful–Capital Murder defendant in Alabama history.
If convicted, the only punishment would be life without the possibility of parole.
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