UPDATE (Feb. 2, 2023): Sylvester Ford was convicted of murder after a three-day trial. Sentencing is scheduled for March 1, 2023.

BEECH GROVE, Ind.– A teenager accused of killing his uncle in Beech Grove will be charged as an adult, prosecutors announced Friday.

Sylvester Ford, 16, faces one count of murder in the death of Devon Ford.

The shooting happened on Feb. 16. Officers were called to the 150 block of Diplomat Court around 10:20 a.m. They found a man who had been shot multiple times in bed.

Court documents show Sylvester told a family member on the phone, “Five guys ran upstairs. I left open door taking out trash. Devon gone,” and then hung up.

The family member said Sylvester kept changing his story. When asked about why someone would want Devon dead, another family member said Devon “had money.”

Devon kept money in his apartment, along with a pistol, authorities said.

Surveillance video and witness accounts put someone matching Sylvester’s description at the scene at the time of the shooting.

When police spoke with Sylvester, he told them he’d been living with Devon since being released from jail on Jan. 17.

Court documents show Sylvester told police when he went to take out the trash on the morning of the shooting, a silver car pulled up with three men inside. He said he hid by the dumpster because he thought it was suspicious.

He said he eventually went back inside and went to talk to a neighbor, and that’s when he heard gunshots. When he went back to the apartment, he said Devon’s gun was “hot.”

He then claims he put the gun in his backpack because his “first instinct was to get the gun out of there.”

When police asked him why he didn’t call 911, he allegedly responded his “first instinct was to call my people.”

Police asked about his relationship with his uncle, and he said the two had been arguing recently about a few things, including an iPad that Devon allegedly took away from Sylvester for using it too much.

In a later interview, Sylvester reportedly told police someone named “Jerron” was responsible for the killing. When police pressed him about this, he said, “I’m about to just say I shot him on accident just to get it over with.”

He then gave police a formal statement saying that. He allegedly told police he wanted to know what it was like to hold a gun, and accidentally shot Devon three times.

He said he shot multiple times because he “didn’t know how to stop,” according to court documents. He then allegedly took money from a dresser.

The gun was later found in a backpack in a Burger King dumpster.