EVERETT — A Lynnwood man faces decades behind bars for shooting an unarmed 16-year-old in the back last year.
A Snohomish County jury deliberated for less than three hours Monday before convicting Charles Courtney of first-degree murder. Jurors also were convinced that Courtney was dealing heroin.
Anthony Boro’s family cried out when the verdict was read. The Mariner High School sophomore died Oct. 6 in the parking lot of a Lynnwood-area apartment building.
Jurors were told that Courtney, 25, shot Anthony as the boy was running away. The bullet pierced the teen’s spine and heart. He collapsed to the ground, where another man, Jesse Landrum, kicked him repeatedly.
Courtney was a drug dealer who let runaway girls crash at his Lynnwood-area apartment, Snohomish County deputy prosecutor Jarett Goodkin told jurors. One of those runaways told Courtney that she saw one of his rivals and others near his apartment building earlier that evening. She claimed the group was wearing bandanas and carrying weapons.
Courtney told police he never saw the group. He didn’t know Anthony.
The defense had argued that Courtney was scared for his life after being told that armed men, including a man who threatened to kill him, were in the area. His attorney told jurors that Courtney was in a state of hyper-vigilance. He’d been in the Army and served one tour in Iraq. He was reacting in the way he was trained in the military, the defense said.
Courtney is scheduled to be sentenced Nov. 16.
Diana Hefley: 425-339-3463; hefley@heraldnet.com.
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