2 more teens charged in ambush killing 17-year-old in a Kennewick neighborhood

A second set of teenage brothers are now charged with helping rob and kill a teen who was delivering $25 in marijuana oil.

Benton County prosecutors filed first-degree murder charges against Vontell Wesson Jr., 16, and Syntrell Wesson, 15, in connection with the April 28 killing on Rhode Island Court.

Since Vontell Wesson was 16 when the shooting happened he will face charges in adult court.

His brother is charged in juvenile court, and prosecutors must decide if they will ask a judge to move the case to adult court.

Warrants have been issued for the teens.

One of the other accused robbers, Jacquez Young, appeared Wednesday in Benton County Superior Court by video link.

Young initially was charged as a juvenile since he was 15 at the time of the shooting, but Judge Diana Ruff recently agreed to move the case to adult court.

He was scheduled to enter a plea to the new adult charges on Wednesday, but his attorney, Brian Hultgrenn asked for a two-week delay.

Hultgrenn plans to ask the judge to reconsider the decision and may file an appeal. He wanted to make sure that entering a plea wouldn’t interfere with either of those options.

He has previously argued that there isn’t enough proof that Young, who is now 16, should be treated as an adult.

Ruff looked at a series of eight factors and found, in most of the cases, he should be tried as an adult.

While Ruff agreed that the teen lacked maturity and hadn’t exhausted the opportunities in the juvenile rehabilitation system, she still found that all of the other factors supported bumping up the case.

The Wessons and Jacob and Jacquez Young allegedly plotted to lure 17-year-old Ricardo Rivera to the dead end road. A witness saw the teens attacking Rivera just moments before hearing the gun go off.

Then they were seen on security cameras running away from the scene, according to court documents. Along the way, they grabbed nearly $2,000 in cash that Rivera had in his car.

Planned a robbery

Youngs and Wessons are accused of hatching, what police believe, was a plot to rob Rivera in the west Kennewick neighborhood on April 28.

Jacob Young allegedly used the name “Dontae100” on the SnapChat messenger to set up a meeting to drop off a gram of marijuana oil.

It’s still unclear which teen shot him.

Jacquez Young was affiliated with the Gangster Disciples and part of a group of gang members who called themselves the “Blitz Crew.”

While not an official gang, the group had drawn members from the Gangster Disciples and the Crips, police have said.

This story was originally published January 5, 2023 at 10:03 AM.