Boy Faces Murder Charge, As Adult Teenager Says Shotgun Killing Of Girlfriend In Chattaroy Trailer Home Was An Accident
A Chattaroy teenager who says he accidentally shot his girlfriend to death will be tried for murder as an adult, a prosecutor said.
Joseph Brooks, 17, was charged Friday with second-degree murder, said Jonathan Love, a Spokane County deputy prosecutor.
The murder charge means Brooks’ case automatically transfers from juvenile to adult court, Love said.
The high school dropout was moved from the juvenile detention center to the Spokane County Jail on Friday afternoon.
He will make his first appearance in District Court on Tuesday. Love has requested his bond be set at $150,000 cash only.
Detectives say Brooks fired a sawed-off 12-gauge shotgun into Dianna Meyer’s head while she sat in his living room Wednesday afternoon.
Meyer died inside the single-wide trailer Brooks shares with his mother at the Chattaroy Hills trailer court near U.S. Highway 2 and Denison-Chattaroy Road.
Brooks ran to a friend’s trailer shortly after the 4 p.m. incident and refused to come out for more than three hours. He later surrendered without incident.
A witness to the shooting - another teenage boy who lives in the trailer park - told detectives Brooks was angry at Meyer because she had told people he was using drugs.
Brooks and Meyer had been dating for about a year, detectives said.
According to the witness, Brooks grabbed a Remington Model 870 shotgun from a back bedroom shortly before the shooting and said he was going to use it to scare Meyer.
When the girl returned to the trailer later that day, Brooks confronted her, lowered the muzzle of the gun to within inches of her face and threatened to shoot, court records state.
According to the witness, Meyer replied, “Go ahead.”
Brooks then fired the gun, hitting his girlfriend in the right side of her face.
The suspect later told friends he thought he had switched the gun to “safety” before he pulled the trigger.
Meyer lived in Spokane and had attended Jantsch Alternative High School for about a month earlier this year. She had been staying with Brooks for a few days prior to the shooting, detectives said.
, DataTimes