While behind bars at the Merrimac Trail Detention Center, a 17-year-old boy heard a rumor Dylan Peters had “a lot of weed, money” and a gun.
Court documents detail how that 17-year-old boy, once released from the detention center, passed along that rumor to two of his friends, telling them he planned to rob the Tabb High student.
Within hours, 17-year-old Peters was fatally shot at his home on Cattail Lane in Tabb.
The suspected shooter, the 17-year-old boy who first heard the rumor, was arrested last week and charged with second-degree murder. WYDaily does not publish the names of minors facing charges unless they are tried as an adult.
York-Poquoson Sheriff’s Office authorities arrested one of his friends, 20-year-old Tevin DeSean Lambert, around 5:45 p.m. Tuesday on a charge that he helped plan the attempted robbery that led to Peters’ death.
A criminal complaint filed against Lambert in the York-Poquoson General District Court on Tuesday details the series of events before the Jan. 27 shooting, including the suspected shooter’s admission to his friends he shot Peters.
On Jan. 27, the suspected shooter — who authorities said is a Grafton High student — spent the day with Lambert and another friend in the Tabb area of York County.
The trio met up the morning of the shooting and walked to a church at the intersection of Russell Lane and Big Bethel Road. The friend told authorities the 17-year-old urinated outside behind the church, where he left his backpack.
After stopping at Food Lion to buy cigarettes, the three continued to someone else’s home in Peters’ neighborhood, Whispering Winds, on Tall Pine Circle.
While they walked, the shooting suspect “was talking about someone he met while he was locked up in Merrimac [Trail Detention Center] that told him Dylan had a lot of weed, money and he had a gun,” the friend told investigators. The 17-year-old suspect proceeded to tell them he was going to try to rob Peters.
He also said he saw a black-colored pistol on the shooting suspect’s left side, “stuck down in his pants,” while they were walking.
Once they arrived at the Tall Pine Circle home, Lambert admits he began arranging to buy marijuana from Peters through text messages. The friend who had spent the morning with Lambert and the 17-year-old told investigators Lambert also provided the suspected shooter with his backpack to store the stolen drugs and “anything else he gets” in the robbery.
The criminal complaint details how the three left the home together, with the suspect headed to Peters’ home on Cattail Lane and Lambert and the friend headed to a different part of the neighborhood.
The friend said he heard gunshots as he and Lambert were walking near Peters’ home toward Russell Lane, where the friend lived.
When they arrived at the Russell Lane home, they found the shooting suspect waiting for them, wearing different clothes and with both Lambert’s backpack and the one he left at the church.
During his interview with investigators, the friend said the suspect admitted he shot Peters and “did not get any drugs or money during the robbery attempt,” court documents show.
He said the suspect also told him he “shot Dylan because he would not give him the [drugs],” and Peters had “pushed him and yelled ‘get the gun’” before retreating back into the house.
YPSO charged Lambert with conspiracy to commit robbery because “Lambert knowingly provided his back pack to (the shooting suspect) to carry away the loot from the robbery,” the investigator wrote in the complaint.
Law enforcement arrived at the scene of the shooting at around 3:40 p.m. Jan. 27 to find Peters suffering from multiple gunshot wounds.
Authorities said Peters came outside to his porch and had a “brief discussion” with the suspect before retreating inside the house.
When Peters attempted to close the door, the suspect fired five shots through the door with a .40 caliber handgun, authorities said. All five shots went through the door and hit Peters, who had wounds to his chest, shoulder, leg and hand.
The text messages and phone calls between Lambert and Peters ended two minutes before Peters was shot, according to the complaint.
Peters was taken to Riverside Regional Medical Center in Newport News, where he was pronounced dead.
Witnesses and family members told investigators Peters was “known to sell marijuana from the residence,” the criminal complaint states.
Deputies found .40 caliber handgun casings, bullets and bullet fragments at the crime scene, as well as “related drug possession and sales by the victim” and several cell phones that belonged to Peters in the residence, according to court documents.
Sheriff J.D. “Danny” Diggs said the 17-year-old suspect came to the Sheriff’s Office on Jan. 28 with his parents, where he was arrested. Diggs described the suspect as “somewhat cooperative.”
He is charged with second-degree murder, attempted robbery and possession of a firearm in the commission of a felony.
The 17-year-old suspect, who Diggs said may be tried as an adult, is currently being held without bond at the Merrimac Trail Detention Center. His bond hearing is set for 9 a.m. Thursday.
Lambert, who is facing a felony charge of conspiracy to commit robbery, has a preliminary hearing scheduled for 11 a.m. April 16.
No other arrests have been made in this case, which remains under investigation.
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