Cellphone pictures recovered from the body of a St. Paul teen shot in the city's North End last week helped investigators identify the boys who left him to die in the street, murder charges say.
Javeon Norbor-Mayon Kohene, 17, was charged Monday by juvenile petition in Ramsey County District Court with second-degree murder and aggravated robbery in connection with the Dec. 14 shooting death of 17-year-old Elijah Watson.
Prosecutors plan to certify Kohene as an adult in the case.
According to the criminal complaint:
Officers responded to the 500 block of W. Jessamine Avenue, on the outskirts of Marydale Park, just after 2 p.m. on a report of a shooting. Minutes earlier, a 911 caller had reported that a male victim approached her house covered in blood from an apparent gunshot wound to the face. He collapsed and died at the edge of the yard.
The homeowner, visibly shaken, told police she'd been helping her two grandchildren with their virtual learning upstairs when she heard banging at the door. The teen was wounded so badly she couldn't understand what he was saying. The children started crying, one telling officers that he "had already looked outside."
Two witnesses reported hearing a gunshot and seeing males run down the street and hop into a black car. Another called 911 to alert dispatch to a suspicious male wiping down a parked vehicle before getting a ride from a motorist who sped away. Police located an abandoned Pontiac G6, which had been reported stolen, with blood on the door and window.
Investigators discovered a cellphone on Watson containing pictures from an hour before the shooting. One showed him inside a stolen vehicle alongside three other boys, including Kohene, who was wearing a puffy red Tommy Hilfiger jacket with fur around the hood.
