Two people have been sentenced to five years in prison after admitting to firing guns at a house party where one person was found dead last year in southwest Lubbock.
However, Lubbock homicide detectives continue to investigate the Sept. 28 shooting death of 20-year-old Deon Lilly, whose body was found on the street after multiple gunshots rang out that night as the party was coming to a close.
Adrian Harley Casias, 18, appeared earlier this month in court by video conference from the Lubbock County Detention Center where he has been held since Oct. 1. He pleaded guilty to a count of deadly conduct by discharging a firearm, a third-degree felony that carries a punishment of two to 10 years in prison.
Robert Stefferon Green, 19, was sentenced in
July to five years in prison after pleading guilty to the same third-degree felony.
Casias also pleaded guilty to his role in an unrelated theft of a firearm a day after the shooting at a CVS Pharmacy in central Lubbock.
A Lubbock house party turns deadly
Casias and Green were not accused of hitting anyone with the bullets they fired that night in the 5500 block of 76th Street.
The investigation so far indicates the shooting happened during a fight in the front yard of a home that was rented through a short-term rental website for a party that was advertised online.
Police officials believe the party was attended by hundreds of teens and young adults.
Court records state that as partygoers were leaving, a fight involving multiple people broke out in the front yard of the house, during which several shooters began firing their weapons.
Crime scene investigators collected more than 100 spent cartridge casings and fired bullets at the scene, according to court documents.
Two days after the shooting, Casias was arrested after he was stopped in the 8100 block of Interstate 27 by patrol officers responding to an unrelated domestic disturbance call.
During the encounter, officers learned Casias was present at the party on 76th Street.
Casias met with Metro detectives and he reportedly told them he saw the fight in the front yard of the party house and heard gunshots shortly after, according to a probable cause affidavit.
Casias reportedly told investigators he sensed a bullet passing near him, drew his weapon and began firing over the heads of a crowd gathered in the front yard to scare them.
Casias said he encountered Lilly, who was already injured, and tried to get him into his friend's vehicle.
Casia said there were pictures on his phone of his clothing stained with Lilly's blood. However, the documents don't state why Lilly never got into the vehicle.
Investigators would later find the weapon, a silver .45 caliber pistol, which matched the caliber of some of the shell casings found at the scene of the shooting, the warrant states.
Further analysis determined that shell casings recovered from the scene were fired from Casias' pistol.
During the interview, Casias also admitted to his role in an unrelated Sept. 29 firearm theft from a woman at the CVS location in the 3400 block of Slide Road.
In that case, a woman told police officers that a thief stole the pistol she had in her back pocket while she was bent down in the parking lot to inspect her tire.
The woman took picture of the thief, who was wearing an orange beanie as he ran away and entered a waiting red, Hyundai Sonata.
The investigator obtained surveillance video that showed the woman and her son leaving the store. However, the woman bent over to check her left front tire, her son goes back into the store to return a basket.
The woman told investigators the thief put his arm across her back to keep her from standing as he took the weapon from her back pocket.
Casias said he and his friend whom he knew by the street name "Parkway" went to the pharmacy in his girlfriend's vehicle.
Casias said he and Parkway saw the woman's firearm and quickly decided to steal it.
He said Parkway, who wore an orange beanie, stole the woman's weapon while he waited in the vehicle.
Investigators discovered Parkway was an alias used by 22-year-old Xavier Olivarez, who was on parole.
Olivarez spoke with detectives and said he was with Casias the night of the shooting and corroborated Casias' statement.
Meanwhile, he also reportedly admitted that he was with Casias at the pharmacy the day after.
He told investigators that Casias pressured him to steal from the woman and said he threw away the stolen weapon.
Meanwhile, Green was arrested on Oct. 2 at the end of a vehicle pursuit that began in the 1300 block of 65th Drive where members of the Texas Anti-gang unit were planning to arrest Green for a parole warrant.
The pursuit ended near the intersection of 65th Street and Avenue O and Green was arrested after a brief foot chase.
Officers found inside the vehicle Green drove a brown handgun with a laser pointer under the barrel.
During his interview with police, Green told investigators he was at the party and got into a fight with an unknown male.
He said he fled east away from the house as gunshots rang out during the fight.
Green denied having a gun or firing any shots and consented to a search of his phone.
However, investigators found on the phone images of Green with the pistol found during his arrest.
The image was also posted on Green's Facebook page where investigators found more pictures of him posing with the same weapon.
Investigators also found messages Green sent other people complaining that his gun jammed that night.
Meanwhile, investigators obtained video from the home's ring doorbell camera that showed Green arriving at the party then drawing the same pistol from his waistband and racking the slide and putting it back in his waistband.
Results from a ballistics test showed that multiple casings found at the scene were likely fired from Green's pistol.
No arrests have been made in connection with Lilly's death.
Anyone with information on the case can call Crime Line at 806-741-1000.
Gabriel Monte is the criminal justice reporter for the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal in Texas. Have a news tip for him? Email him at gmonte@lubbockonline.com.
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Two sentenced for firing weapons at deadly Lubbock house party
