The final person arrested for the June 2017 abduction and murder of a Lancaster teenager has pleaded guilty. Dallas County court records show Devontae Owens, 29, entered into a plea agreement on April 19. He admitted to a charge of engaging in organized criminal activity and was sentenced to 30-years in prison, the records say.
The brazen kidnapping and murder stunned Lancaster. Shavon Randle, 13, was walking to her home when she was grabbed from a Lancaster street and forced into a car. Days later her body, along with the body of Michael Titus, was found in an abandoned house in Oak Cliff. Both had been shot in the head.
It turned out that Randle was targeted because a cousin had dated a man who had been involved in a marijuana robbery. The girl, authorities concluded, had no knowledge of the robbery nor any other connection to the marijuana heist.
The frantic search in the hours and days after the kidnapping included an all-out press by police and the FBI to find the girl before she was harmed. Experts in cell phone technology tried to trace suspected phones.
Ultimately, investigators were led to Owens and three others for the Randle kidnapping and murder. One of the three and a woman were connected to the stolen marijuana.
Desmond Jones was convicted by a jury in a trial that included a courtroom outburst that led to bailiffs carrying him out in front of the jury. He was sentenced to 99 years in prison. Laquon Wilkerson pleaded guilty and received a 40-year prison term and Darius Fields was convicted in March and sentenced to 55-years in prison.
Fields and girlfriend Laporsha Polley was convicted in separate federal cases. Polley for lying to a gun dealer to get a weapon for Fields. She was sentenced to four years in prison. Fields received an 18-year federal prison term.
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