The 15-year-old youth being held in the shooting death of a Clearfield girl over the weekend will be charged with manslaughter instead of negligent homicide, according to investigators.
Jennifer Sawyer, 14, Clearfield, died early Sunday morning when she was shot in the head with a stolen .357-caliber magnum handgun, according to police.The boy who witnesses say shot her had been pointing the gun at several other teens who were sitting in a circle on the floor of a vacant mobile home drinking beer.
The boy apparently believed the gun was empty, according to police, and was pointing it at the teens and pulling the trigger. When he pointed it at the victim, it went off.
The teens fled from the vacant trailer but two of them ran to a neighboring mobile home and reported the shooting.
Clearfield police picked up all five of the teenagers involved, including the boy who witnesses said did the shooting. He was taken to the MOWEDA youth detention center in Roy and held on a charge of negligent homicide, a Class A misdemeanor.
Prosecutors from the Davis County attorney's office upgraded the charge Monday in 2nd District Juvenile Court to manslaughter, a third-degree felony. The youth is being held in the MOWEDA center pending a hearing in his case.
Clearfield police investigators said charges could be filed against the other teenagers involved in the incident, including alcohol violations and firearms theft charges.