Police to charge 13-year-old boy, 12-year-old girlfriend in suburban Dallas fatal shooting

Dallas-area youths facing charges in woman’s death

GARLAND, Texas — A 13-year-old boy and his 12-year-old girlfriend will be charged with murder and aggravated assault in a shooting that killed a suburban Dallas woman and wounded her husband, police said Wednesday.

The youths were taken into custody Tuesday, soon after police found 46-year-old Darlene Nevil’s body at her home in Garland, 11 miles northeast of Dallas, Garland police spokesman Joe Harn said.

Her husband, 48-year-old Alan Nevil, was rushed to a Dallas hospital where he underwent surgery. He is in critical condition, Baylor University Medical Center spokeswoman Maria Carpenter said.

Neighbor Juan Garcia Jr. told The Associated Press that police and Alan Nevil’s grown son told him that his father had been shot five times, and that a bullet was still lodged in his throat.

Harn said Alan Nevil was able to tell police who shot him and his wife, but that no motive had been determined.

Harn declined to reveal the children’s relationship to the Nevils.

Police recovered a handgun they believe was used in the attack and were trying to find out who owned the weapon, Harn said.

The youths were being held in the Dallas County Juvenile Detention Center, Harn said, adding that suspects must be at least 15 years old to be tried as an adult.

The Garland Police Department said in a statement it was in the process of filing murder and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon charges against both of the youths

“This (double-shooting by children) is very much out of the ordinary,” said Harn, who has worked for the Garland Police Department 30 years. “I can’t recall in my career seeing something like this.”

Garcia said he and Alan Nevil had been friends since they were adolescents.

“I can’t believe that this happened to them. I can’t believe Darla is gone,” he said.