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Trey Wright was over the moon for his new girlfriend, a cheerleader he’d been dating going into summer break from school, according to his mom. But after an apparent fight, she allegedly set him up to die, then visited the hospital before his family knew what happened.
Two days after the excited South Carolina 16-year-old told family that dating her “felt like a dream come true,” it became a nightmare. Authorities allege that she set him up to be shot and killed by another teen three years his senior.
“They knew each other, far as I know, no longer than two months,” his 35-year-old single mother, Ashley Lindsey, told Fox News Digital.
Gianna Kistenmacher, 17, is being charged as an adult after authorities say she brought Devan Raper, 19, to Wright’s location, knowing he was armed, angry and allegedly willing to shoot.
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Trey Wright, center, his mother Ashley Lindsey and his younger brother pose after one of his football games. (Ashley Lindsey)
Although they didn’t know each other long, Wright made sure his family knew he was serious about his new girlfriend, his mother said.
“Every time she came to see him, he made a point of being around me with her, like he wanted me to get to know her,” Lindsey said. “Because he truly liked her and enjoyed spending time with her.”
But after an escalating argument on the night of his murder, she and a group of teens allegedly drove about an hour to Wright’s location in Johnsonville from where most of them lived in Myrtle Beach. Then Raper is accused of fatally shooting him.
“She even went to the hospital after he was shot,” Lindsey said of Kistenmacher. “I hugged her neck and was comforting her because I didn’t know.”
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Trey Wright poses before a school dance. (Ashley Lindsey)
One of Wright’s female friends, another teen, snapped at Kistenmacher in the hospital. The adults broke it up, and she left with her parents – only to be arrested later on charges of accessory before the fact. Prosecutors eventually upgraded the charges against her as the investigation dug deeper.
In all, there are seven teens who are either over 18 or being charged as adults – plus another two juveniles, who are all accused of playing a role in the setup and shooting. One of them recorded the slaying on video, according to the local sheriff – a brutal and confusing fact for Lindsey.
Nine Myrtle Beach-area teens have been charged in connection with the shooting death of Johnsonville, South Carolina, 16-year-old Trey Wright. Seven are charged as adults. From left: The mugshots of Corrine Belviso,18, Devan Raper, 19, Gianna Helene Kistenmacher, 17, Hunter Kendall, 18, and Sydney Kearns, 17. Pictures of two other named suspects, Braylyn O’Neil Thompson, 17, and Jaden Blaze Auclaire, 18, were not immediately available. (Background: iStock, Insets: Florence County Sheriff’s Office)
“Why, why did they do this?” the mourning mom pondered. “What pushed them to the point to drive over an hour, nine kids, to commit murder, and then to record it?”
It happened in late June, but authorities have continued to expand their case over the following months, naming two more suspects last week – Braylyn O’Neil Thompson, 17, and Jaden Blaze Auclaire, 18.
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While Lindsey said she doesn’t expect any more arrests, she said the lead detective is still interviewing witnesses in search of more details about the motive.
Other suspects facing murder charges are 18-year-olds Hunter Kendall and Corrine Belviso and 17-year-old Sydney Kearns.
Raper faces charges of murder and possession of a weapon during a violent crime and is being held without bond. Kendall is also being held without bond.
Trey Wright on the football field, celebrating with a friend and teammates after a game. (Ashley Lindsey)
The others have been released on bond – and their parents’ supervision, which Lindsey argues has proven to mean little.
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“These underage kids, they got out with ankle monitors on under their parents’ supervision, but where were their parents the night that my kid was killed?” she said. “They’re out at 11, 12 o’clock at night and y’all are underage. Where were the parents then?”
Her son, meanwhile, was where he was “supposed to be,” at a close friend’s house, when the group showed up.
“Obviously, the parents ain’t doing a good job at keeping them at home,” she said.
Pictured in an undated photograph posted to GoFundMe in the wake of his shooting death is Trey Wright, a 16-year-old from Johnsonville, South Carolina. Police have charged nine Myrtle Beach-area teens, including his girlfriend and a romantic rival, in connection with the slaying. (GoFundMe)
And she’s already seen evidence that the terms of release have been violated, at least by some of the suspects, she said. Wright’s best friends allegedly caught one juvenile reading their Snapchat story when he was not supposed to be using cellphones or other devices, she said. Two others, who were banned from having contact with their co-defendants, posed outside the juvenile justice center in a photo captioned, “I’m free,” followed by a racial slur.
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Wright played football and baseball and had been working at a local deer processor since he was 13, his mom told Fox News Digital. His bosses treated him like family, and she never missed a ballgame.
Beachgoers near the Myrtle Beach pier in South Carolina in a file photo. Nine local teens have been charged in connection with the shooting death of a 16-year-old from nearby Johnsonville, including his girlfriend. (iStock)
He had only gotten into football in eighth grade, but he picked it up quick – running for two touchdowns in his first game. He would have played up next year, she said.
In general, he was a pleasant and positive young man, she said.
“He didn’t too much care for school, but he still went every day with a smile on his face, because he was a morning person,” she said. “He used to wake up singing, take 30 minutes in the mirror blow-drying his hair, so his little surfer boy flip on the side of his hat was perfect.”
He took his road test young and already had a driver’s license. So his single mom bought him a truck for Christmas, and once he was driving, he was all over the place, she said.
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“When I say my kid can go anywhere and never meet a stranger, everywhere he went he was making new friends, getting somebody’s number,” she told Fox News Digital. “I had a woman from Myrtle Beach, Little River, she wrote me after everything happened, and she said, ‘look, me and my husband own a Southern Outfitters store, my daughter met your son over spring break.’ They talked every day, through Snapchat, whatever. She said Trey really touched her heart.”
He also began going to car shows closer to Myrtle Beach, where he met Kistenmacher, Raper and some of the others.
Kistenmacher’s Myrtle Beach-based lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.