Background: The neighborhood in Mishawaka, Ind., where Sophia Burks was killed (Google Maps). Inset (left): Jacob Olvera (St. Joseph County Police Department). Inset (right): Sophia Burks (Legacy.com).
An Indiana teenager will face charges as an adult after police said he left a loaded gun within reach of his girlfriend’s little sister, who ended up fatally shot.
Jacob Olvera, 18, was charged with four felonies in connection with the fatal shooting of 10-year-old Sophia Burks, who died of a gunshot wound on Feb. 7. According to a criminal complaint reviewed by Law & Crime, police said Olvera brought a gun to his girlfriend’s house days before, telling several people, including the children who lived there, that the gun was a BB gun. He reportedly left the gun in his girlfriend’s bedroom, where it was found by Sophia.
According to the complaint, police responded to the home where Sophia’s family lived in Mishawaka, Indiana, after receiving a call about a shooting. When they arrived, officers found Sophia in her sister’s bedroom in the home’s basement, dead from a gunshot wound. The gun was found on the bed.
Sophia’s mother told police that she heard a loud bang right before her son ran upstairs to tell her that Sophia “had been shot.” She immediately ran to her daughter’s side and found her with severe injuries.
Police spoke to Sophia’s older sister, who was dating Olvera. She told police that about a week before the shooting, Olvera came to her family’s home with the gun and told her and the other children “that the gun was a BB gun or a toy.” Sophia’s sister told police that she handled the gun herself with the children present, thinking it was not a real gun.
On Feb. 7, Sophia’s sister said Olvera came to the home with a “heavy” backpack, which he placed in her bedroom under a table. Shortly before the shooting, Olvera, his girlfriend, and her grandfather left the home, leaving the backpack unattended.
Police said Sophia’s sister acknowledged that Olvera “lied about the firearm being a toy” and said he should never have brought it to her family’s house.
When police questioned Olvera, he denied that he had brought a real firearm to his girlfriend’s home. He said he previously brought a BB gun. Police told him that the gun found in his girlfriend’s bedroom was a real firearm, and it did not belong to her grandfather. Olvera was reportedly “unable to explain” how a real firearm ended up in his girlfriend’s bedroom. He then invoked his right to counsel and stopped speaking to police.
According to the complaint, police searched Olvera’s home and found several “firearm-related items,” including a handgun and a firearm conversion switch, “a device designed to convert a semi-automatic firearm into a fully automatic firearm, which constitutes a machine gun under Indiana law.” Olvera was 17 years old at the time, which made his alleged possession of anything firearm-related illegal.
Olvera was charged as an adult with criminal recklessness committed with a deadly weapon, dangerous possession of a firearm by a child, and two counts of possession of a machine gun. He remains in custody at the St. Joseph County Jail, where he is being held on $25,000 bond. His next court date is scheduled for June 17.
