Three Las Vegas-area teenagers have admitted their roles in the May 11, 2024 shooting that killed 16-year-old Jovan Wright Bullock, turning a street confrontation over what turned out to be a BB gun into a homicide case. Bullock was shot outside his home, and judges have set sentencing hearings for all three defendants in March 2026.
Messiah Neely, who was 14 at the time of the May 11, 2024 shooting, pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter with use of a deadly weapon and robbery with use of a deadly weapon. Prosecutors are recommending 2 to 20 years on the manslaughter count, and Neely faces 3 to 30 years on the robbery charge. Co-defendants Robert Saulsberry and Doir Jenkins pleaded guilty to second-degree murder with the use of a deadly weapon and face sentencing ranges of roughly 18 years to life. All three are scheduled to be sentenced in March 2026, according to 8 News Now.
How the shooting unfolded
The shooting unfolded on the morning of May 11, 2024, in central Las Vegas. Officers found Bullock with a gunshot wound, and he later died at University Medical Center. Police say the suspects confronted and then followed Bullock outside his residence before the shot was fired, after which the group fled the scene. Those details were reported by FOX5 Las Vegas.
Evidence and arrests
Investigators pulled together cellphone video and social media messages to connect the teens to a Toyota Camry and obtained surveillance footage that prosecutors say shows the confrontation leading up to the shooting. Jenkins, who was 18 at the time of his arrest, was booked into the Clark County Detention Center and later held at High Desert State Prison. Reporting identified a 17-year-old and a 14-year-old among those charged, and the Las Vegas Review-Journal reviewed arrest reports and surveillance footage details in earlier coverage that outlined the public evidence investigators relied on throughout the probe.
Legal note
Under Nevada law, second-degree murder and voluntary manslaughter involve different legal elements and carry different sentencing ranges, which judges will have to balance against prosecutors’ recommendations, the defendants’ ages and other mitigating or aggravating factors. Much of the sentencing exposure and the state’s recommendations are set out in plea filings cited in local coverage, which spell out the charges and proposed terms. Because one defendant was a juvenile at the time of the killing, the court is expected to weigh age and other mitigation before imposing a final term, as noted in reporting from 8 News Now.
Why the case matters
The plea deals mark a major step in a case that highlighted how quickly a neighborhood dispute can turn deadly and how imitation firearms, including BB and pellet guns, keep surfacing in violent incidents. The shooting is part of a broader pattern of youth-involved violence in Clark County that has fueled debate over how prosecutors charge teenagers and what kinds of plea offers are appropriate. Judges are expected to hand down sentences in March, and those decisions will likely reignite conversations about juvenile prosecution and community safety, amid a wider backdrop of high-profile youth violence cases in the area, as reported by People.
