A Texas teenager shot and killed his 3-year-old stepson because the boy wouldn’t stop Jumping on a bed.
George Coty Wayman, 18, was charged with capital murder in the shooting death of three year old Dominic Tra’Juan Castro, the Washington Post reports.
The boy was shot point blank in the back of his head as he jumped on a bed inside a trailer home in tiny Bellevue, Texas, Tuesday afternoon.
Little Dominic was airlifted to a hospital 40 miles away in Wichita Falls, where he was pronounced dead Wednesday morning.
Wayman, whose last name is tattooed above his right eye, is being held in the Clay County jail on $505,000 bail. He was also charged with trespassing inside the mobile home park.
Witnesses in the bedroom at the time of the shooting — including Dominic’s mother Vernoica Rene Castro, initially told police the toddler was bouncing on the bed and landed on the gun which discharged accidentally.
A caller to 911 also said the child had been shot accidentally. But police say the evidence inside the bedroom did not fit the claim of an accidental discharge.
After further interrogation the witnesses changed their stories and told investigators Wayman intentionally pointed the gun at the toddler and said he’d shoot him if he didn’t stop jumping on the bed, Clay County Sheriff Kenny Lemons told CBS News.
Wayman was not arrested until Wednesday evening after the witnesses changed their stories.
No charges will be filed against Castro and the other adults for lying to investigators and obstructing justice.
Castro has not returned to the mobile home where her son was fatally shot. According to news reports she is staying with friends nearby.
The boy’s biological father has been in prison since 2014 on multiple convictions and was denied parole in January, according to KDFX-TV.
Mourners posted memorials to the 3-year-old boy on social media Wednesday. One Facebook user criticized Castro for not doing more to protect Dominic.
