INDIANAPOLIS — 'Four years too long,' 'Justice for Xavier' and 'We want justice,' read signs friends and family of Xavier weir held up Wednesday in front of the Marion County Prosecutor's Office.
His mother, Michelle Raines is upset the county is moving forward with plea agreements in the 16-year-old's death.
"My son was a wonderful kid," Raines said.
In April of 2019, Weir was shot multiple times while sitting in his car in Beech Grove. Two other teens were in the car with him.
Investigators determined 26-year-old German Parra and 16-year-old Isaiah Funez walked up to the car, opened fire, and ran away.
Parra was an army sergeant.
Court documents state he wanted to rob Wier for THC cartridges.
Weir later died at the hospital.
"The guy defends our country like I just don't understand it my son was a kid still," said Raines.
Funez accepted a plea agreement for robbery in 2021 and is facing up to 15 years in prison.
"So he gets less time than my son was on this earth," said Raines.
The jury was deadlocked in a recent 3-day trial for Parra meaning they couldn't come to a unanimous decision.
Tuesday, the prosecutor's office filed a plea agreement for Parra, which would get rid of the murder charge and put his sentence at a maximum 17 and a half years.
Raines is livid.
"Because we need justice for a Xavier. It happens every day, these kids or youth has been demolished by people shooting and getting off getting pleads pleads pleads, they plead everything out," said Raines.
"We sincerely appreciate the advocacy of the Weir family," Michael Leffler with the prosecutor's office said. "The case is pending at this time. A plea agreement was filed in November 2021. I do not have a copy of the agreement on hand. You may need to reach out to the Court’s office to obtain a file stamped copy. A sentencing hearing is set for 2/15."
"This is not a slap on the wrist for the defendant his sentence can go as high as 17.5 years and this a doing 75% of that time. so he probably is going to get significant time out of this plea bargain," said Jack Crawford, a defense attorney.
Jack Crawford is not a part of the case.
He says plea agreements, which wave the defendants constitutional right to be presumed innocent and plead to a lesser charge areextremely common in Marion County.
"In Marion County about 90% of criminal cases are resolved through plea agreement. There are two sides to almost every story and two sides to this story and both sides felt this was justice they could receive based on the facts," said Crawford.
Both men charged face sentencing in February.
Parra's attorney has no comment since sentencing is still pending.
