Nahquil Lovest dropped the gun and broke down in tears after fatally shooting a 15-year-old girl in the head, according to statements from teens who were there.
"It was an accident," he said, according to three witnesses who were inside the recently vacated Atlantic City house on Massachusetts Avenue early July 25.
But pointing a gun at Naimah Bell's head and pulling the trigger constitutes knowing murder, Chief Assistant Prosecutor Seth Levy successfully argued at a detention hearing Wednesday.
Judge Bernard DeLury ordered Lovest remain jailed pending the outcome of his case, calling him “a palpable danger to public safety.”
Lovest, who recently turned 18, has a “very extensive and violent” juvenile record, including a pending case from last year, according to information released in court.
The hearing gave some insight into the killing. The teens were apparently playing with the gun inside the third-floor room.
The defense’s evidence included Lovest’s sister saying that two of the teens came to their home to tell Lovest’s parents “this was an accident.”
One girl even said another person in the room had pointed the gun at her earlier.
One witness, who described himself as Bell’s boyfriend, said “my client was crying and saying he didn’t mean to do it,” defense attorney Alex Settle said.
Levy said many in the room warned Lovest of the danger of playing with the handgun.
“At one point, he looked at the handgun, he emptied out a number of the shells and then repointed the handgun at the victim’s head and pulled the trigger,” Levy told the judge, adding that Lovest knew how many bullets were in the gun and that it was still loaded.
Lovest “pulled the trigger but was only joking,” one witness told the investigator. ““He had thought he took all the bullets out. He didn't mean to do it.”
Settle argued that Lovest should be charged with aggravated manslaughter or manslaughter, lesser degrees of murder that indicate there was no intent.
DeLury left the bench to decide whether to dismiss the murder charge, but ruled that it would stay.
Now it will be for a grand jury to decide whether to indict on murder or something less.
Lovest will remain in the Atlantic County Justice Facility.
