Attorney for 8-year-old's accused killer: "I couldn't see him being involved"

Thursday, March 2, 2017
Attorney for 8-year-old's accused killer: "I couldn't see him being involved"
The attorney for a 19-year-old accused of fatally shooting an 8-year-old girl said she couldn't see her client being involved in the crime.

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- A 19-year-old man is now under arrest in connection with the murder of an 8-year-old girl over the weekend.

Jacobe Payton has not yet been formally charged, but police say he's responsible for the murder of De'maree Adkins. She was shot after a wreck on the South Belt near Fuqua Saturday morning.

Investigators say the car her mother was driving collided with another vehicle that had been speeding along the feeder. After the wreck, someone drove up and opened fire into the car.

DeMaree Atkins

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Adkins was shot and killed. Detectives say she was not the intended target.

Investigators have asked the media not to show Payton's mugshot out of fear that doing so could jeopardize their investigation as they're still looking to make other arrests.

VIDEO: Authorities announce arrest of suspect in 8-year-old's murder

Mayor Sylvester Turner and HPD chief Art Acevedo give an update on the arrest of a suspect in the murder of an 8-year-old girl.

Police will not say how they caught Payton or what information led to him. His attorney, Tiffany Hill, said she has not spoken to him yet.

"I couldn't see him being involved," Hill told Eyewitness News.

Latoyia Jarmon-Thomas, De'maree's mother, said the arrest will never bring back her little girl.

Payton has two current assault charges pending in Fort Bend County and a charge of theft out of Harris County. He declined ABC13's request for interview at the jail where he is held in lieu of $500,000 bond.

VIDEO: Young girl killed by gunfire after car crash

Gov. Abbott is partnering with Crime Stoppers to bring justice in the case of De'Maree Adkins. The total reward is now $15,000.