Farmers find 18-year-old dead from gunshot wounds in burning sugar cane field, cops say

Sugar cane farmers investigating a fire in their field stumbled across a missing 18-year-old shot to death and hidden under cut-up plant matter, Louisiana authorities said.

Three people have now been arrested in the killing of Ja’Morius Mitchell, whose death may have been motivated by a conflict over a cell phone, the West Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff’s Office said Jan. 3.

Tyler Davis, 18, has been charged with second-degree murder and obstruction of justice after a nearly two-week manhunt, law enforcement said.

Meanwhile, 18-year-old Sterling Powell and 23-year-old Devontae Johnson were charged with principal to second-degree murder and obstruction of justice.

“Investigators determined that on the night of the murder, Powell, Johnson, Davis and Mitchell were traveling together when the group drove to the location where Mitchell’s body was later discovered,” according to the sheriff’s office.

Davis is accused of fatally shooting Mitchell in the back twice with an assault rifle-style pistol. Investigators said Davis and the two accused accomplices then dragged Mitchell’s body into the drainage ditch of a field and hid it under cut sugar cane.

Davis returned days later and set the area on fire for farmers to discover Dec. 18, six days after Mitchell was last seen and reported missing to the Plaquemine Police Department, deputies said.

Mitchell was identified through dental records, according to the sheriff’s office.

“I don’t want anyone else to go through what I’m dealing with,” his mom, Jessica Mitchell, told KLFY. “It’s so much violence in our community that people like that just need to be stopped. Nobody should be hurt. My child, my family, we need justice.”

The day after Mitchell’s body was located, investigators said they found a backpack that belonged to Davis containing an AR-15 style pistol and a phone.

Powell and Johnson were arrested Dec. 19 while the search for Davis began, according to the sheriff’s office. He was taken into custody Jan. 3.