Defense lawyer says teen shot Australian baseball player

Published Apr. 14, 2015 5:33 p.m. ET

foxsports

DUNCAN, Okla. (AP) The defense attorney for a 17-year-old charged in the shooting death of a college baseball player from Australia told a jury that his client fired the fatal shot.

Attorney Jim Berry told a seven-man, five-woman jury as the trial began Tuesday that Chancey Luna of Duncan shot 22-year-old Christopher Lane while Lane was jogging. Berry said the jury must decide if Luna acted with premeditation and that the key issue will be an appropriate punishment. Luna faces up to life in prison if convicted on the first-degree murder charge.

Defense attorneys have said previously that Luna thought he was firing blanks.

Lane was a member of the East Central University baseball team in Ada. He was in Duncan to visit his girlfriend when he was shot in 2013.