Teenager charged in deadly 2022 school shooting in Des Moines seeks to withdraw guilty plea

FILE – Police investigate a shooting outside of East High School in in Des Moines, Iowa, on March 7, 2022. A third teenager charged with murder in a drive-by shooting death of a 15-year-old boy outside a Des Moines high school in March has agreed to plead guilty to lesser crimes. The plea agreement accepted by a state court judge on Monday, Oct. 3, 2022, may allow Gumaro Marquez-Jacobo, 18, to avoid prison time for charges related to the March 7 death of 15-year-old Jose Lopez. (Zach Boyden-Holmes/The Des Moines Register via AP, File)

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — One of the 10 teenagers charged in a deadly 2022 shooting at a Des Moines high school now wants to withdraw his guilty plea.

Octavio Lopez Sanchez Jr. was charged with first-degree murder, two counts of attempted murder, and two counts of willful injury-causing serious injury.

WHO-TV reports that in August, Lopez Sanchez agreed to plead guilty to second-degree murder and two counts of willful injury. Lopez Sanchez filed a motion last week to withdraw his guilty plea. In the motion, Lopez Sanchez said his legal counsel was ineffective and incorrectly told him that if found guilty he would face life in prison without parole. But the motion noted that as a minor, a life sentence is not mandatory.

Fifteen-year-old Jose David Lopez was killed in the shooting on March 7, 2022, on the grounds of East High School in Des Moines. Two other teenagers were seriously injured.

No date has been set for a hearing on Lopez Sanchez’s motion.