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Two teens who were with Summer Moody on Gravine Island the night she was fatally shot had been warned by a law officer two weeks earlier that “someone’s going to get killed” if they didn’t stop burglarizing houses, District Attorney Hallie Dixon said Thursday.
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Dixon said that Tyree and Byrd had been the focus of a recent burglary ring investigation in the Loxley area. She said that officers serving a warrant on Tyree’s home recovered several stolen items.

“One of the officers told Tyree, ‘You’ve got to quit this or someone’s going to get killed,’” Dixon said.

The district attorney also told the judge:

That a second charge of first-degree burglary against Tyree and Byrd stems from a break-in in which the two allegedly assaulted a cohort who had been their lookout for the crimes.

“They beat him so badly he had to be hospitalized,” Dixon said.

That Tyree and Byrd will be subject to 20 counts of third-degree burglary, and that further charges are likely against Parnell, as well.
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According to testimony, Lonnie W. Davison said he was in bed at his camp on Gravine and heard a boat motor in the distance at about 2:30 a.m. At 3 a.m., he said, he got up to work on a faulty generator and he and his friend Nick Hearn heard what they believed was a break-in in progress at the nearby camp of a friend.

They awoke Larry Dean Duncan Jr., and all three took Davison’s boat to check the situation, according to testimony.

Duncan carried a .17-caliber rifle, while Davison had a flashlight and Duncan had a .22-caliber magnum rifle.

One of the men told investigators that he saw someone jumping down from the cabin of the neighboring camp. The men docked the boat and walked to the camp and saw wet footprints, and followed them into the thick woods behind the cabin.

One of the men saw a flickering flashlight, and then they spotted someone in an orange T-shirt hiding behind a tree. That was Tyree, according to what investigators later determined.

Another teen — identified as Byrd — ran, but the men ordered him to stop. Byrd raised his gloved hands and Davison believed that Byrd had a gun.

When Davison shouted a warning, Hearn fired a shot into the ground and Duncan fired a shot from just above his hip in rapid response, according to their accounts.

One investigator testified that it is “highly probable that Dean Duncan did fire the fatal shot” that struck Moody. He said Moody was shot in the head from side to side in a downward trajectory.

The men told Tyree and Byrd to get on the ground, but realized as they approached them that the two were teens. Investigators testified that the men told them to leave the island, and let them go.

The men departed in their boat, but waited nearby for the teens to pass by.

When the teens didn’t show, the men returned and found Tyree and Parnell trying to load Moody onto their boat. The men then took the injured girl in their faster boat, officers testified, and transported her to Cloverleaf Landing to meet medical help.

The teens, meanwhile, went to Byrne’s Lake Landing, where they had launched their boat earlier.

The men told investigators they were aware that law enforcement can be delayed by hours in responding to the area, and said they had been told by state Marine Police to “handle situations on their own.”

An investigator testifying this afternoon in a preliminary hearing in the Summer Moody case said one of the teenagers with Moody said she was an active participant in the burglaries on Gravine Island.

The investigator testified that Daniel Parnell said the teens originally went alligator hunting and frog gigging.

The investigator also testified that Parnell said they had a rifle in their boat and fired at one alligator.

One of the other teen boys, Dylan Tyree, said the gun was registered to the third teen boy in the group, Scott Byrd, according to testimony from the investigator.

The investigator also testified that Parnell said a hunting knife found at the Beasley camp belonged to Tyree.

Today's hearing will determine whether the cases against the three teenagers who were with Moody -- Parnell, Tyree and Byrd -- will proceed to a grand jury. Each of the teens have been charged with first-degree burglary based on the possession of a weapon during the alleged crime.

In other testimony this afternoon, an investigator revealed that Parnell and Tyree both said that Byrd (Moody's Boyfriend) ran in the opposite direction of Moody after she had been shot and did not render aid of any kind. They said Byrd ran for their boat and tried to start the motor, according to the investigator.

This morning, an investigator had testified that Larry Dean Duncan Jr. said he fired a shot from above hip level in the general area where Summer Moody was likely hiding. Moody was struck in the head by a bullet on the night of the alleged burglary and later died from the injury.

During this afternoon's testimony, the investigator said it was his belief that it was highly probable that Duncan fired the shot that hit Moody. The investigator said Duncan told officers he shot in the air.

An investigator later testified that forensics could not determine the caliber of the bullet that killed Moody and that 14 bullet fragments were recovered from her body. He said that Moody was shot in the head "side to side at a downward angle."

The investigator said Duncan sobbed uncontrollably when he and the other adults were in a holding area during the interview process.

Near the end of the hearing this afternoon, Baldwin County District Attorney Hallie Dixon that Byrd and Tyree face additional first-degree burglary and assault charges and some 20 other burglary charges.

The two teens -- who had previously been released on bond -- were cuffed at the close of the hearing on the new charges. There was no bond reduction, so once the new charges are filed, they will have to pay additional bond to be released again.