15-year-old to be prosecuted as adult in fatal shooting he says was self defense

A 15-year-old West Boca boy is being prosecuted as an adult in the Aug. 7 shooting death of his friend that he told deputies was in self defense.

Dylan Dantas pleaded not guilty Friday to charges of second-degree murder with a firearm and delinquent in possession of a firearm, court records show. The South Florida Sun Sentinel is naming the minor boy because he is being prosecuted as an adult.

Shortly before noon Aug. 7, Dantas called 911 and said “he just killed someone that was in his backyard” in the 6800 block of Bianchini Circle, a probable cause affidavit said. Kaleb Cobourne, 18, was killed.

Dantas told the 911 operator he believed his friend was breaking into his home, the affidavit said. Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office deputies and fire rescue found Cobourne unresponsive in the backyard’s screened-in pool patio area, the affidavit said.

Cobourne, who died from multiple gunshot wounds, was pronounced dead there. He did not have a weapon, according to the affidavit.

From the moment deputies arrived at the West Boca home, Dantas said he was acting in self defense, according to the affidavit. His defense attorney wrote in a recent court filing that Dantas was acting under the state’s Stand Your Ground law.

The law says a person who is lawfully in their home has the right to stand their ground with deadly force, in part, if he “reasonably believes that using or threatening to use such force is necessary to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm” or “to prevent the imminent commission of a forcible felony.”

That person is presumed to have had a reasonable fear if, in part, the person who they’re using the force against was in the process of or had forcibly and unlawfully entered the home. The law does not apply, though, if the person who deadly force was used against had “the right to be in or is a lawful resident” of the home, in part.

Defense attorney Christopher Haddad wrote in the filing that text messages and social media communications show that Cobourne arrived at Dantas’s home “and aggressively entered onto his property, forced his way through a gated area and continued to pose an imminent threat of great bodily harm, death or the commission of a forcible felony.”

Haddad said he could not comment on the case by deadline when reached by phone Monday evening.

Investigators found that Dantas and Cobourne had a disagreement the weekend before the shooting, according to the affidavit. They reviewed multiple text messages and voice communications between Dantas and Cobourne the morning of the shooting, including one message where Dantas sent his home address to Cobourne and a text that said, “Waiting on u doe,” the affidavit said.

“While Dylan Dantas claimed he was in fear for his life, video evidence, cellular phone communication/data, and Dylan Dantas’ own actions contradict this claim,” a deputy wrote in the probable cause affidavit. “These actions and evidence appear to be inconsistent with the level of fear described and the level of fear that would be reasonable to justifiably murder another person.”

Surveillance video from the boy’s home showed him talking on the phone in the pool patio area about 11:52 a.m., saying “Come to the backyard. Where you at?” A minute later, Cobourne was seen on video kicking his way into the backyard through a wooden fence and entering the yard, the affidavit said.

Seconds after Cobourne entered the yard, the boy came back into the patio area with the gun “extended,” the affidavit said. He shot once and said, “Watch out fam,” before shooting multiple times toward the corner of the patio. Nine shots were heard on the video.

Dantas told the 911 operator he fired three shots at his friend, according to the affidavit.

“He’s my best friend. This is self-defense, ma’am this is self-defense, am I right?” Dantas said in the 911 call, according to the affidavit. “He’s in my backyard. He was coming at me. He climbed my gate. He managed to get over the gate and then he broke the screen. This is self-defense.”

At the scene, Dantas told deputies Cobourne said “he would kill him with his bare hands” and that Cobourne wanted to fight him, the affidavit said. He told the 911 operator and deputies that Cobourne had “charges and stuff” and “has pictures of guns on social media.”

The deputy wrote in the affidavit that Dantas invited Cobourne to the home and was in communication with him leading up to the shooting, according to the affidavit. The deputy wrote that Dantas said the victim was “coming at (him)” but “the video clearly shows Dylan Dantas shooting first then advancing on the victim who was already shot.”

Haddad in the court filing last week asked that the court inform the grand jury of their ability to subpoena three witnesses to hear testimony from before deciding whether and what to indict for, including a Sheriff’s Office detective, a Coconut Creek Police officer and a Deerfield Beach resident.

Haddad wrote that the three witnesses have evidence that would show Cobourne “was the aggressor and was known to have a propensity of violence,” according to the filing, and “conducted specific incidents of violence” against Dantas.

“Further, the deceased was known to possess and carry firearms and had a criminal record supporting this fact,” Haddad wrote.

Court records in Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade County do not show any criminal cases against Cobourne.

Dantas has been ordered not to contact or attempt to contact Cobourne’s family, court records show. His initial case conference is currently scheduled for Jan. 11.