‘Crime Stories’ Podcast: Guilty plea in Snapchat murder plot after 14-year-old girl shot in head, left freezing in a ditch over ‘annoying’ social media messages

A second teen boy has pleaded guilty to plotting to murder a 14-year-old girl because he and the triggerman didn’t like her Snapchat posts.

The Salt Lake Tribune reports that Jayzon Decker, 17, pleaded guilty to to first-degree felony attempted aggravated murder and second-degree felony obstruction of justice. Colter Danny Peterson, also 17, had previously admitted to shooting 14-year-old Deserae Turner, who survived.

Peterson and Decker were both people that Turner had considered to be friends before the murder attempts. Peterson reportedly told police that he planned to kill the 14-year-old because he was annoyed by messages she sent him via Snapchat.

According to the Salt Lake Tribune, Decker confessed to details of the plot and attempted murder in court on Tuesday. Decker told the court that he and Peterson had lured Turner to a canal in Smithfield in February, purportedly to sell her a pocketknife. The boys had initially planned to stab her, but instead Peterson shot her in the back of the head, reportedly with Decker’s encouragement.

Turner miraculously survived the shooting, and was found later that evening in a ditch by two women searching for her after her parents reported her missing.

The 14-year-old suffered serious injuries, and remains partially blind, and the bullet still lodged in her head. She has trouble walking because weakness and paralysis on her left side,  and suffers continued effects of frostbite on her feet.

“This is a horrific act,” prosecutor James Swink told reporters outside the courtroom.

“The sense of betrayal to Deserae, you can’t put words to that. How terrible it is to have two friends betray you and commit a terrible act on her is just awful for her.”

Both Decker and Peterson will be sentenced as adults.

[Feature image: Associated Press/Deserae Turner with parents]