CASPER — A 15-year-old Casper boy who reportedly told friends “I hope I killed one” after shooting at two homes with people inside pleaded guilty Wednesday in Natrona County District Court.
Marquis Hayman, who was charged as an adult, pleaded guilty to two counts of aggravated assault and battery as part of a plea agreement. In exchange, Natrona County Assistant District Attorney Jeff Meyer agreed to drop two property destruction and defacement charges and a reckless endangering charge.
Sentences for both aggravated assault and battery charges would be served concurrently, according to the plea deal.
District Court Judge Daniel Forgey went over the deal with Hayman as he stood in a red juvenile detention center jumpsuit, handcuffs and shackles beside his attorney, Dylan Rosalez.
According to the agreement, the prosecution would not object to an assignment to the state’s boot camp for young offenders as part of the sentence.
“Do you now plead guilty to those two charges?” Forgey asked.
“Yes, your honor,” Hayman said.
In questioning about what he did outside a trailer home in the 1200 block of North Center Street on Aug. 9, and again Aug. 12 outside a home in the 1100 block North Durbin Street, Hayman told the judge he fired a pistol into both buildings.
The judge, referring to the second shooting, asked Hayman if he “made somewhat of a threat before he did it?”
“Yes, sir,” Hayman replied.
The judge accepted the plea agreement and ordered a pre-sentence investigation.
Bond Question
Rosalez asked the judge to consider lowering Hayman’s bonds of $100,000 cash for the Aug. 9 incident and $50,000 cash or surety for the Aug. 12 incident to $10,000 cash or surety on both counts.
“He would be able to reside with his grandmother and mother,” Rosalez said. “His father has come from Florida to help assist.”
Meyer asked the judge to continue the bonds due to the “nature of the charges” and the “lack of supervision” that led to the incidents.
Forgey agreed to modify the $100,000 bond from cash only to “cash or surety.”
As Hayman was leaving the courtroom, his brother Anicio Bernard stood up in the courtroom and repeated a phrase that he spoke as Hayman was leaving his arraignment in November, “I love you brother.”
The judge and bailiff ordered him immediately out of the courtroom.
Court records show police responded to the 1200 block of North Center Street on Aug. 10 on the report of a house having been shot at. A resident told police she had been asleep about 5:30 a.m. Aug. 9 and woke up to what sounded like gunshots in the area. She did not believe they came into her trailer home and went back to sleep.
The next day, her son returned home from Denver and found two bullet holes in his bedroom.
The homeowner reviewed video that showed a male in a white Calvin Klein shirt and dark jeans wearing a mask come up to the residence and fire two shots at the home, a court affidavit states.
Police recovered a shell casing outside the home. An investigation of a Snapchat post the victim’s son received showed a screen shot of a male in while Calvin Klein shirt.
The victims at the house refused to press charges, but following the Aug. 12 incident, the affidavit said the bullet casing recovered at the scene on North Center Street matched that of the Aug. 12 shooting in the 1100 Block of North Durbin Street.
‘Mama Ducking’
A witness also told police that she heard Hayman bragging on Aug. 11 about shooting up “Chopo’s” house a few nights earlier. “Chopo” was the social media handle of the North Center Street victim’s son.
One of the text messages read: “He living life while his mama ducking shots.”
The charge related to the Aug. 12 incident on North Durbin involved a shooting that resulted in three bullet holes in the glass window of a mobile home and two other bullet holes with fragments penetrating a bedroom where people were sleeping.
A police affidavit about the incident alleges there had been underage drinking in a car, and a text message to a girl that was in the car that she should “kill herself” from a 15-year-old boy who lived in the Durbin mobile home. Hayman had been bragging about a 10 mm pistol he had, and he requested a ride to the house where he allegedly fired five shots into the home in the 1100 block of North Durbin Street.
After returning, a witness told police Hayman said, “Yo, we just popped this (expletive). … I hope I killed one,” the affidavit states.
Each of the charges of aggravated assault and battery carry a potential 10-year prison sentence.
Dale Killingbeck can be reached at dale@cowboystatedaily.com.
