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Family says marijuana deal led to 15-year-old’s murder

Family and a friend of Jescie Armstrong say the 15-year-old was shot and killed for his marijuana and the scale he used to weigh it. “It was a set up,R...

Family and a friend of Jescie Armstrong say the 15-year-old was shot and killed for his marijuana and the scale he used to weigh it.

"It was a set up," said Katelyn Jones, a friend of the teenager from Rock Island. "They set him up to rob him. Now you robbed and killed somebody over a plant? Come on."

"I'm very angry," said Armstrong's grandmother, Debbie Armstrong. "I just don't understand how somebody could do this - how somebody could shoot somebody."

"He was going to get his driver's license this summer," she added. "He never got to do that. He never got to graduate. He never got to have children of his own or get married."

Jescie Armstrong's family says he liked video games, stock car races, and fishing, but had also started selling marijuana. They say he was killed during an armed robbery during a drug deal.

19-year-old Trey Gustafson, 21-year-old Chelsea Raker, and 18-year-old Kire Carr are all charged with murder.

A hearing for Gustafson on Tuesday, August 2nd, 2016 was cancelled for two weeks to give his attorney more time to prepare.  But after court, Armstrong's family say they have been told most of what allegedly happened by an eyewitness to the crime.

"Kire said 'Nice doing business with you,' pulled the gun out of his shirt, and shot at the ceiling," said Jones. "He tried to grab the scale."

She said Armstrong tried to stop the robbery and wound up on the floor in a wrestling match with Carr.

"Jescie was on the bottom, Kire was on the top of him, and shot him in the head. Chelsea was standing over by a trash can, grabbed him and said 'Come on, we have to go. There's cops coming'," Jones said.

Jones says Armstrong didn't know Carr and Raker, but was a friend of Gustafson's, who she says allegedly set up the deal.

All three are being held in the Rock Island County Jail on $1 million bond.

"Jescie's gone," said his grandmother. "We're never going to be able to bring Jescie back, but I hope these kids that did this pay for this."

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