One of three teenagers accused of murder in the fatal shooting of another Barrie teen has pleaded guilty to a lesser charge.
The 17-year-old male was shot and killed at his River Ridge Road home on Nov. 19, 2021. He was pronounced dead outside the home.
Alexander Craggs, who was 18 at the time, was charged along with two 17-year-old boys with first-degree murder. The identities of the two younger suspects are protected under the Youth Criminal Justice Act.
BarrieToday has learned Craggs, who was charged as an adult, pleaded guilty to being an accessory after the fact of murder on Dec. 13, 2022. He's scheduled to be sentenced in provincial court March 31.
Meanwhile, the two youths are expected to have a preliminary hearing next month.
Residents of the southeast Barrie neighbourhood where the teen was killed said they heard a series of blasts early that Friday evening in 2021 near Golden Meadow Drive, backing on Hurst Drive. A heavy police presence that soon followed suggested the eight to 12 shots they heard wasn’t fireworks as some had suspected.
Until this killing, Barrie hadn’t experienced a homicide since 2019.
On Nov. 16, 2019, Ryan Babineau, 30, was fatally stabbed at a Dunlop Street East apartment. Three men were charged, one of whom is currently standing trial.
Earlier that year, on Feb. 19, 2019, a 15-year-old boy was stabbed to death at a south-end Barrie group home where he had been placed. Another boy, who was 14 at the time, was charged. He pleaded guilty to first-degree murder last year and was handed a 10-year sentence, the first six years in custody followed by four years of conditional supervision in the community.
