Red Lion boy, 13, charged with homicide in shooting death of Kain Heiland, 12

Murder charges have been filed against a 13-year-old Red Lion boy accused of shooting and killing 12-year-old Kain Heiland on April 1.

Nolan Donald Grove, of the first block of First Avenue, is charged as an adult in the April 1 homicide. Pennsylvania law mandates that juveniles accused of murder be charged as adults. Murder in the third degree carries a maximum statutory sentence of 40 years.

Grove is charged with third-degree murder, involuntary manslaughter, recklessly endangering another person and firearms offenses. He was detained after his preliminary arraignment Friday morning after being denied bail, a standard in murder cases.

More: 'Justice for Kain': Family of 12-year-old shot and killed in Red Lion calls for justice

Earlier this week, family members of Heiland held a demonstration outside the York County Judicial Center demanding that charges be filed in the month-old killing. “The coroner says it was a homicide,” said Linda Arvin, Kain’s maternal grandmother on Monday. “There’s no question who did it. Why hasn’t he been charged?”

At a news conference Friday morning, York County District Attorney David Sunday said, "A lot of cases take way longer than this, and when you make decisions of this magnitude, it has to be done thoroughly, in accordance with the law and the facts.”

Friday afternoon, Arvin said, "It's not a high enough charge. I wish we were in Texas so he could get the death penalty. He took Kain from us, and they should take him from his family."

"His parents will still get to see him. I'll never get to see Kain again," said Devin Rexroth, Kain's mother.

Sunday started the news conference by expressing his condolences to Kain's family for their "indescribable loss."

"Over the last three weeks," Sunday said, "we met and spoke with Kain's parents multiple times, explaining the grand jury process to include the statutorily mandated secrecy provisions, applicable legal standards and different potential paths this case could take."

Timeline of events

According to a criminal complaint filed by Pennsylvania State Police, Kain, Grove and another boy were hanging out on April 1 and were planning a sleepover at the other, unidentified boy’s home.

According to documents, the boy told a grand jury that Grove had obtained a firearm sometime during the day and he saw Grove loading and unloading the semi-automatic handgun several times that day, removing the magazine and slamming it back into the stock. He also said he saw Grove activate the laser sight on the gun “numerous times,” according to the complaint.

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Earlier that day, according to the complaint, the witness said he saw Grove pointing the handgun at Kain. A surveillance video shows the red dot from the laser sight on Kain’s body. In the video, Kain tells Grove, “Take your finger off the trigger” and “This is not fair; I’m the only one without a gun,” troopers wrote in the complaint. Yet another video, discovered on social media, shows the red laser dot on Kain’s body as he lies on the floor, shielding his face.

Other witnesses told the grand jury that the three boys encountered two girls who were with what they believed was the unidentified boy’s scooter. When they asked the girls to return the scooter, the complaint states, Grove told the girls “he wasn’t afraid to shoot anybody, and he would if he could.” One of the girls recalled Grove said “he would shoot somebody if he had to.”

At 8:22 p.m. - the exact time recorded on a Facetime call – the witness recalled that Grove said something about Kain’s mother, the complaint states. Kain told him to be quiet. Grove said, “You know what happens.” Grove, according to the complaint, had been telling “your mom” jokes all day and told Kain that his mother was “really hot,” the complaint states. Kain repeatedly told him to be quiet or shut up.

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Grove then drew the handgun from his sweatshirt pocket and shot Kain in the back. The witness told the grand jury that he saw “fire” come out of the handgun’s muzzle.

The witness yelled, “What the ----?” to Grove. Another witness, watching on the Facetime call, heard Grove say, “I’m so sorry, K.”

The witness ran home, and Grove followed. The witness asked Grove why he shot Kain, and Grove “did not really respond to the question,” according to the complaint.

Neither Grove nor the witness called 911. Instead, according to the complaint, Grove called his father, who was in Harrisburg at the time. The witness told his parents that Grove shot Kain, and his parents called 911.

The witness told the grand jury that Grove asked him not to tell anybody about what happened.

When state police asked Grove about the shooting later that evening, he told them that he was in his bedroom when he heard a gunshot. Grove’s mother, Danielle Nace, told troopers that Grove told her the shooting was an accident, according to the complaint.

“Based on the facts that we identified through the course of the investigation and the law as it currently exists, at this point the father is not being charged with a crime,” said Sunday at the news conference.

York County President Judge Maria Musti-Cook ordered that Grove be held at a juvenile detention facility. A preliminary hearing is set for June 27.

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The is a developing story. Check back later for updates.

This article originally appeared on York Daily Record: Red Lion boy charged with murder in shooting death of Kain Heiland, 12