17-year-old charged in fatal shooting wants case moved to juvenile court

CEDAR RAPIDS — One of the teens accused of fatally shooting 16-year-old Michael Alexander McCune is asking a judge to move his first-degree murder and a theft case to juvenile court, but his previous juvenile court officer said it wasn’t in the “best interest” of the teen or the community.

Chad Deahl, a juvenile court officer, said Tramontez Lockett, now 17, of Cedar Rapids, was assigned to him in April 2022. Lockett had already been at the Boys State Training School in Eldora after being found delinquent — guilty — on several juvenile charges. Deahl supervised Lockett from February through November of 2022.

Deahl said Lockett completed all his classes and overall he did well. He had 19 “positive”— how they grade positive or negative — weeks, but he had significant behavior issues in June and August of 2022. He was on the honor roll 15 times.

Lockett did graduate and returned home to his parents and remained on probation, Deahl said. He opted to continue his school through online classes and turned down services offered through juvenile court involving life and social skills.

Deahl said Lockett’s parents were supportive of him. The teen was probably closest to his mother, who was his main support, he said.

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Deahl recommended the teen be discharged in February of this year, after he had been out of the school for three months, and shortly before McCune was killed Feb. 18. Deahl said he recommended Lockett for discharge because he’d completed his education and he wasn’t working on the goals — getting a job, making progress on with online classes — that Deahl set for him.

Lockett couldn’t return to the training school because Kelly Garcia, director of the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services, wrote a letter in April regarding Lockett’s possible placement at the training school if convicted in a separate theft and eluding case, which started in juvenile court and transferred to district court, Deahl said. Garcia had safety concerns about Lockett being at the school with others at the school who were affiliated with McCune and this case.

Deahl said if a judge sent Lockett back to the school, Garcia would petition the court to deny that. There are no other facilities like the state training school in Iowa, except residential treatment facilities or out of state centers, but DHS would have to approve that, he said.

He didn’t know of any out of state placements that might take Lockett.

Assistant Linn County Attorney Molly Edwards asked Deahl about a waiver report he filed in this case June 19.

Deahl said Lockett struggled to adjust when he was initially moved to Central Iowa Juvenile Detention Center in June, but his behavior had been excellent in the last few months. He was moved to the Central Iowa facility because Linn County Juvenile Detention Center had difficulty keeping the other teens charged in this case separated, which is a requirement because they have no contact orders with each other pending trials.

If Lockett was sent back to juvenile court, he would only have 18 months before turning 18 years old, which would be sufficient time for rehabilitation on a murder charge. Also, if Lockett has a trial, that would take more time and he might have far less rehabilitation in juvenile court.

Amber Foley, Lockett’s lawyer, argued that because of Garcia’s letter, it did open options for placements outside Iowa and those could offer more services than the state training school. She also pointed out that Lockett successfully completed his classes at the school and he had strong family support.

Edwards, in her argument, said there’s no evidence that Lockett would be accepted at the other facilities outside Iowa, and juvenile court had “exhausted” all its efforts to rehabilitate Lockett. Deahl also said 18 months wasn’t a sufficient amount of time to rehabilitate someone convicted of first-degree murder.

Edwards said if Lockett was sent back to juvenile court, he could just wait out the clock until his 18th birthday and then be released, which would be a “miscarriage of justice.”

Sixth Judicial District Chief Judge Lars Anderson said he would take the matter under advisement and file a written ruling. He did give defense and prosecution a week to file any additional briefs.

According to court documents and previous hearings, Lockett and three others are accused of planning a “targeted” fatal attack on McCune on Feb. 18 over past conflicts stemming from their rival gang affiliations and the time some of them spent together at the state training school.

Tramontez Lockett seemed to start the deadly chain of events that night, as he was messaging McCune through Snapchat, according to court documents.

Lockett, who had been at the training school and knew McCune was on a home visit, arranged to pick up McCune at the Tan Tara Apartments, 1640 F Ave. NW.

Lockett and Devin Gardner, 16, of Maquoketa, were identified on a video surveillance from a Kum & Go at 2604 16th Ave. SW, as the two stole a 2019 Toyota RAV4 from that location earlier in the day, a criminal complaint stated.

The two drove the Toyota to pick up two others — Dante Irvin, 15, of Cedar Rapids, and Baynon “BJ” Berry, 16, of Marion.

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They drove to the apartment building, and when they saw McCune, Irvin and Berry started shooting at him, according to previous court hearings in the case. One of them ran into the apartment building, continuing to shoot McCune at a close range.

Cedar Rapids police found McCune with eight gunshot wounds about 11:30 a.m. Feb. 18 inside the entryway of one of the apartment buildings. The fatal shot was to the top of his head, according to the complaint.

Berry will be the first of the teens to go to trial Dec. 5. Lockett’s trial was recently set for Jan. 9. Gardner’s trial was reset to Feb. 20.

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