COVINGTON, Ky. — Two Covington teens could face life in prison for the murder of a Hispanic man earlier this year.
A Kenton County grand jury indicted them Thursday for the alleged crime, which Kenton County Commonwealth's Attorney Rob Sanders calls a racially motivated robbery gone wrong.
"These are the youngest two defendants that I've had on a murder charge during my career, which is approaching 18 years now," Sanders said.
Jamareon Jones-Snapp, 14, and Joseph McMeans, 15, are facing four counts including one for murder, one for assault and two for robbery, and will be tried as adults in circuit court.
Sanders said Jones-Snapp and McMeans shot 23-year-old Selvin Alvarado and another man outside the Tienda La Samaritana on Greenup Street on the night of Jan. 6.
It started as a robbery, but after the victims fought back and started to run away, one of the teens pulled out a gun and shot the victims, with one of those bullets hitting Alvarado in the head, Sanders said.
"This is the very sad but very serious reality of what can happen when teenagers are left unsupervised especially when they have access to guns," Sanders said.
The victims were targeted, Sanders said, because they were Hispanic.
"They, for whatever reason, thought that accosting Hispanics, specifically Hispanics on the street, would be more likely to be successful for them because they were making the gross assumption that Hispanics deal in cash and don't have bank accounts, which is obviously a very racist assumption," he said. "But also that they would not call the police or cooperate with the police."
According to Covington police, Alvarado was taken to UC Medical Center in critical condition after the shooting.
Less than 24 hours later, Jones-Snapp and McMeans were arrested and charged with first-degree robbery and first-degree assault, but when Alvarado died two days later at the hospital, police upgraded the teens' assault charge to murder. Given the severity of the crime, their case was moved to adult court, Sanders said.
"They committed a very adult crime and they knew how serious their actions were and they're going to face very real adult punishment as well," Sanders said.
Sanders said the teens face 10 to 20 years in prison for both the robbery charges and assault charge, as well as 20 to 50 years or life for the murder charge.
"It's not fun," he said. "It's really sad to see somebody throw their life away at such a young age and know that they're going to spend at least the next couple of decades in prison, but at the same time they took a life."
Sanders said Alvarado, a young father, was from Guatemala and living in Covington. He had been working in the area to earn money to send back to his family.
"Obviously they're very sad to learn of Mr. Alvarado's passing, but he's got a little girl that he leaves behind," Sanders said.
Jones-Snapp and McMeans are being held at the Fayette County Youth Detention Center in Lexington. They are scheduled for a Zoom arraignment at the Kenton County Justice Center on July 7 at 11 a.m.
If convicted, the teens would remain at the juvenile detention center until they turn 18 and then be transferred to adult prison to serve the remainder of their sentences.
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