18-year-old James Edwards Jr pleaded guilty on Wednesday to being an accessory to murder in the killing of 22-year-old Christopher Lane

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

Australian baseballer Chris Lane. Photograph: Facebook/PR Image

An Oklahoma man has admitted his role in the fatal shooting of an Australian college baseball player and has been ordered to prison boot camp, pending his sentencing next year.



The Oklahoman reported that 18-year-old James Edwards Jr pleaded guilty on Wednesday to being an accessory to murder in the killing of 22-year-old Christopher Lane.

Lane was killed on 16 August 2013, while out jogging. An autopsy found that he was killed from a single shot to the back from a .22 calibre revolver. The gun was fired from the window of a car in a seemingly random drive-by shooting.

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Edwards, who the Oklahoman said backed out of a deal to serve 20 years in prison followed by 20 years on probation, faces up to 45 years in prison. On Wednesday, a judge ordered him to prison boot camp in Alva. His sentencing hearing is scheduled for 14 June 2016.

Edwards was charged with first-degree murder, but that charge was dropped in 2014. He was 15 when the shooting occurred.

Lane, from Melbourne, Australia, was in Oklahoma on a baseball scholarship. He was preparing for his senior year at East Central University in Ada and was visiting his girlfriend in Duncan when he was shot.