Teen annoyed by girl's Snapchats pleads guilty to shooting her

A Utah teen accused of plotting to “get rid” of the 14-year-old girl he shot in the head has pleaded guilty to attempted aggravated murder.

Colter Peterson, 17, agreed to a plea deal Tuesday for shooting Deserae Turner in the back of the head and leaving her for dead, the Desert News reported.

Peterson, of Logan, was one of two teens arrested in February for trying to kill Turner in an attack that left her with permanent disabilities.

Authorities said that Peterson and Jayzon Decker, 16, devised the plot to kill her while playing video games.

The plan started as joke when Peterson remarked that he was annoyed with Turner sending him Snapchats and texts, police said.

Decker told Peterson that it would “be pretty easy to get rid of her,” according to the Salt Lake Tribune.

The teens lured Turner to a canal Feb. 16 on the pretense of buying a knife.

When she turned around, Peterson allegedly shot her in the back of the head.

Turner laid in a ditch for nearly eight hours before she was found, the Desert News reported.

The shooting left Turner hospitalized for two months and the bullet remains lodged in her head.

Her family testified that she has trouble seeing, walking and eating after the attack.

“Our daughter continues to struggle,” said her father Matt Turner. “She works every day to gain as much quality of life as she can. But her life will never be the same.”

As part of Peterson’s plea deal, the charges for obstruction of justice were dropped.

Prosecutors, however, said that they will still ask that he be sentenced to life in prison.

“We could not have got any more penalties had we gone to trial than what we got today,” Cache County Attorney James Swink said after the hearing. “The state is getting everything we could want at a jury trial.”