Teenager charged with College View shooting sentenced to 45-60 years

A teenager charged in the March 2018 shooting death of Edgar Union Jr. was sentenced to 45-60 years on Monday.

Our media partner 10/11 reports that 17-year-old Natavian Morton pleaded no contest to manslaughter and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony in July.

Morton was originally charged with second-degree murder, two counts of use of a firearm to commit a felony and unlawful/intentional discharge of a firearm in connection to the shooting death of Union Jr. in the College View area, near 47th and Stockwell streets, on March 26, 2018.

Morton was eventually arrested in Mississippi in April of 2018.

An arrest affidavit unsealed August of 2018 said before the shooting multiple people saw an outline of a gun in Morton’s jacket, but none of the people LPD interviewed actually saw who pulled the trigger. Witnesses told police Union Jr. held a gun to someone’s head in an attempt to rob him and that’s when he was shot.

At the time of the shooting Morton was 16 years old and a student at Lincoln Northeast High School. Morton’s attorney had requested the case be tried in juvenile court, but in September 2018 Lancaster County District Court Judge Lori Maret issued a five-page ruling that his case would be tried as an adult.

The decision on whether or not Morton should be tried as a juvenile or an adult eventually reached the Nebraska Supreme Court. In February 2019, the Nebraska Supreme Court upheld Judge Maret’s ruling and Morton’s case stayed in Lancaster County District Court.