A 17-year-old’s guilty plea in Roxborough High slaying is a step forward for the victim’s family: ‘I don’t have anger, I just have heartache’

A 17-year-old on Tuesday pleaded guilty to killing two teens in as many days, including by unloading a hail of gunfire at Roxborough High School that left 14-year-old Nicolas Elizalde dead and four other students injured.

Troy Fletcher admitted to being one of five shooters — four of whom were juveniles at the time — who authorities said fired more than 60 shots into a crowd of people following a football scrimmage on Sept. 27, 2022.

Fletcher, who was 15 at the time, and the other shooters were targeting a 17-year-old boy attending the game when they fired into the crowd, prosecutors said. Several teens were struck by the spray of gunfire, including Nicolas, who was hit in the chest and died at the scene in the arms of his mother, Meredith Elizalde. Nicolas was her only child.

Nicolas Elizalde was a freshman at Walter B. Saul High School, but because the school does not have an athletics program, he played football for Roxborough High.

Before Common Pleas Court Judge Barbara McDermott, Fletcher pleaded guilty to third-degree murder, conspiracy, four counts of attempted murder, and gun crimes. He is scheduled for sentencing in February.

Fletcher is the second of the five people charged in the shooting to plead guilty, after Zyhied Jones pleaded guilty in September. Jones is scheduled for sentencing Thursday.

Fletcher’s guilty plea was another small step in what has been a painful, protracted process for Elizalde’s family, his grandmother Marge LaRue said after the hearing Tuesday. Hearing the judge speak about Fletcher finishing high school reminded her that her grandson will never get to do the same, she said.

“I don’t have anger, I just have heartache,” she said. “It’s just so hard to be here and watch them and try to grasp at — two years ago now — what they did so callously and carelessly.”

During the same hearing, Fletcher also admitted to his role in a separate, unrelated slaying the day before the shooting at Roxborough High School, pleading guilty to third-degree murder, conspiracy, and gun crimes for the killing of 19-year-old Tahmir Jones.

Authorities said Fletcher, and two other teens charged in the Roxborough shooting — Zyhied Jones and Dayron Burney-Thorn — fatally shot Tahmir Jones more than 10 times outside his North Philadelphia home on Sept. 26, 2022.

Earlier on Tuesday, Burney-Thorn was faced with the same choice of whether to take a plea deal or go to trial for the two shootings.

“I’ll go to trial,” Burney-Thorn told McDermott, betraying little emotion.

A trial date for Burney-Thorn and the other accused shooters in the Roxborough High case, Saleem Miller and Yaaseen Bivins, is set for next October.

At that point, it will have be more than three years since Elizalde was killed, his grandmother said. The wait for justice has prevented Elizalde’s family from starting to heal, she said.

“I just want my family to be done with this. This is ugly. This is just ugly. And it’s long,” said LaRue.

“When is it done?,” she asked. “Nick is never coming home. When is it done?”