Boyfriend of baseball star shot by teens 'because they were bored'

Lesser charge: James Edwards Jr agreed to testify against his two friends in exchange for a lesser sentence

   

    Driver and killer: Edwards said that Michael Jones (left) was driving the car and Chancey Luna (right) shot Lane while sitting in the backseat- though both have entered not guilty pleas

    Making the rounds: Chris and Sarah had just returned from visiting his family in Australia (pictured during the visit) before they returned to the U.S. and stopped by her hometown of Duncan on their way back to college

One of the three boys accused in the fatal shooting of an Australian baseball player last summer has claimed that his friends believed the gun used in the crime contained only blanks.

James Francis Edwards Jr. agreed to testify against his co-defendants during a preliminary hearing on Tuesday.

In exchange for his testimony continuing through trial, prosecutors said they will drop a murder charge and he would only face an accessory charge.

He told an Oklahoma judge Tuesday that Chancey Luna, 16, shot and killed Christopher Lane, of Melbourne, from a car driven by Michael Dewayne Jones, 18.

Edwards, 16, said he was rolling marijuana cigarettes in the front passenger seat when Luna shot at Lane from the back seat.

The teens later drove to a restaurant, where Luna and Jones exchanged words.

According to Edwards, Luna said to Jones that he thought the gun only had blanks inside them.

Jones reportedly then responded: 'Me too. I'm sorry,' Edwards said.

Jones and Luna then dropped off Edwards at court for Edwards to sign probation papers for an unrelated juvenile charge. 

Edwards, who testified wearing an orange jail jumpsuit, is the first of the three teens to talk about the August 16 shooting. 

Lane, 22, was on a jog in Duncan, Oklahoma during a trip to visit his girlfriend Sarah Harper's family when he was shot in the back by the teens who sped off moments later.

SOURCE-DAILYM