Teen found guilty of 2nd-degree murder and manslaughter in deaths of two students at Des Moines school

Preston Walls appears in court at the Polk County Courthouse in his trial in connection with the shooting at Starts Right Here at the Polk County Courthouse on Thursday, August 31, 2023, in Des Moines, Iowa. The trial is beginning this week for the first of two teens charged with murder in a shooting at a Des Moines alternative school that left two students dead and the program’s founder injured. (Lily Smith/Des Moines Register via AP)

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A jury has found an Iowa teenager guilty of second-degree murder and voluntary manslaughter in the deaths of two students that he shot at a Des Moines alternative school earlier this year.

Jurors on Thursday found 19-year-old Preston Walls guilty of the deaths of 18-year-old Gionni Dameron and 16-year-old Rashad Carr at the Starts Right Here program on Jan. 23.

Walls also was found guilty of willful injury causing serious injury for his shooting of Will Keeps, a former Chicago gang member and rapper who started the Des Moines program for at-risk teens. He was acquitted of attempted murder in the shooting of Keeps.

Starts Right Here reopened within several weeks of the shooting and Keeps returned despite lingering injuries.

If Walls had been convicted of first-degree murder, he would have faced a mandatory sentence of life in prison. His conviction of second-degree murder in the death of Carr and voluntary manslaughter in the death of Dameron means he will be eligible for parole.

Walls will be sentenced in November.