Teen could get 8 years’ prison after pleading guilty to shooting man in the back on Fourth of July

CASPER, Wyo. — A Casper teen pleaded guilty Tuesday before Judge Kerri Johnson to shooting a man in the back on the Fourth of July. Adolfo Aceves Jr., 19, appeared Tuesday while out on a $100,000 surety bond.

The plea agreement allows the state to ask for up to eight years in prison at sentencing on the charge of aggravated assault and battery with a drawn deadly weapon. The maximum sentence for the charge is 10 years.

Casper police said hundreds of residents, including families, were gathered at Mathew Campfield Park, 1219 N. Beech St., on the night of the Fourth of July. Police got a report around 10:10 p.m. that a man had been shot and the unknown shooter had fled the scene. Police found the victim, a man in his late 40s, with a single gunshot wound in his back. The bullet shattered the upper section of his right hip, according to a police review of the medical records. Surgery was needed to repair the damage and extract the bullet, which was kept for evidence, according to the affidavit.

A Casper Police Department spokesperson told Oil City News last summer that the altercation between youths and the victim began when a preschool-aged child was injured with a firework. The next day, a witness showed police a video of the encounter.

As described in the affidavit, the video shows the victim approaching a young man from a group and shoving him. Others from the group gather around, including the shooting suspect wearing a black Nike sweater with the hood up. The witness said they recognized Aceves from his distinctive straight-cut bangs and dark hair.

In the video, the man in the Nike sweater is seen holding the gun and firing a single shot into the back of the victim, after which several people begin yelling and everyone runs in various directions, the affidavit said.

Detective Leonard Jacobs spoke to Aceves the next day. Aceves said he had been wearing a Nike hoodie the day before, but claimed he had left the park with a friend before the shooting and had gone to get Wendy’s.

Detective Jacobs met with more witnesses in early September and saw a new video of the incident. It showed the victim and another male in a back-and-forth shoving match, the victim unaware that Aceves is behind him training the gun at the back of his head.

After firing at the victim’s lower back, Aceves’s face is clearly visible while running away, the affidavit said. Jacobs noted that the face was identifiable as Aceves’s due to previous interactions and his driver’s license photo.

Detective Jacobs signed the arrest warrant request on Sept 17. On Sept. 25, detectives responded to a tip that Aceves was returning from Glenrock and pulled him over after exiting Interstate 25. He was taken into custody without further incident.