16-year-old Maxwell Marion Morton has been charged with murdering his classmate Ryan Mangan. But just how did police come to suspect the Pennsylvania teen? Believe it or not, officials point to a “selfie” Morton took with the victim’s body, which he uploaded to Snapchat and shared with his friends. Yes, kids posting evidence of their crimes on social networks is totally a thing for some reason:
Authorities say 16-year-old Maxwell Marion Morton of Jeannette, Pa., fatally shot 16-year-old Ryan Mangan in the face before taking a photo with Mangan’s body and uploading it to Snapchat, a smartphone application that allows users to send images that are deleted a few seconds after they’re received, according to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.
Morton sent the image to a friend, who saved it on his phone before it was deleted, according to Fox News. The friend showed the photo to his mother, who turned the image over to police, according to Fox News.
If you’re wondering how damning the picture in question was, well… let’s just say it’ll probably make it very difficult for Morton to refute the charges against him:
“[Police] received a copy of the photo which depicted the victim sitting in the chair with a gunshot wound to the face,” a police affidavit states, according to the Tribune-Review. “It also depicts a black male taking the ‘selfie,’ with his face facing the camera and the victim behind the actor. The photo had the name ‘Maxwell’ across the top.”
After police discovered a 9-millimeter handgun in Morton’s home, he fessed up to the murder. He now faces charges of first-degree murder, homicide, and illegal possession of a firearm.
[Via BroBible and Washington Post]