Josiah Walker, the teenager who shot 20-year-old Marissa Jones Anderson at a vacant house party on Tucson's east side in April of 2024, was found guilty of negligent homicide this month and sentenced to six years in prison.
He was given 511 days time served.
According to the initial interim complaint, officers arrived at the abandoned property near Wilmot and East Fifth in April of 2024, to find Anderson's body with a gunshot wound to the head.
One of the witnesses told officers there was a party with about 20 people taking place at the home. The witness brought a new shotgun to the party and Walker asked to look at it.
While the witness was going to the bathroom in the desert, he heard a shot fired. He returned to find Anderson on the ground with the gunshot wound, the complaint said.
The witness took the shotgun, ejected the spent shell and left with his girlfriend. He and his girlfriend eventually returned and flagged down officers to provide a statement.
The girlfriend said she was standing around a fire pit at the home with Walker, Anderson and her boyfriend. She said Walker was not being safe with the shotgun when he was handling it. She said he was pointing it at people. She said she saw Walker shooting Anderson in the head.
Both the witness and his girlfriend said Walker was not arguing with Anderson prior to the shooting, that they were friends.
Officers arrested Walker at the home of friends. One of his friends told officers that Walker told him that he shot and killed a girl while he was looking at a shotgun.
The other friend told officers that Walker told him that he was handling the shotgun when Anderson walked in front of him and his finger slipped. He told his first friend that he was drunk.
