Montco man who killed two high schoolers during a drug robbery has been sentenced to decades in prison

A Montgomery County man was sentenced to 32½ to 60 years in state prison Friday after he admitted killing two Pottsgrove High School students in what a prosecutor called “cold blood” during a drug robbery.

Dominic Carboni, 18, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder, robbery, and related crimes before Montgomery County Judge William Carpenter. Carboni and an accomplice were accused of killing Skyler Fox, 17, and Brandon BaCote-Byer, 18, after meeting to buy a half pound of marijuana from them last October, authorities said.

When the four met in Pottstown to complete the sale, Carboni shot BaCote-Byer multiple times, killing him, before repeatedly shooting Fox in the back as he tried to run away, Carboni admitted Friday.

His accomplice, Deonte Kelly, 24, of Philadelphia, pleaded guilty to third-degree murder, robbery, conspiracy, and related crimes in a separate hearing Friday and was sentenced to 25 to 50 years in state prison.

As Carboni confirmed details of the killings in court Friday, Fox’s grandparents and BaCote-Byer’s relatives, who were sitting side by side, cried and held one another.

Police responding to reports of gunfire around 11:30 p.m. Oct. 17, 2022, found Fox and BaCote-Byer lying on the ground near the intersection of Fourth and Johnson Streets, authorities said. Officers also found spent shell casings, a fired bullet, and a 9mm handgun with its serial number obliterated strewn across the ground near the teens.

Carboni plotted with Kelly to rob Fox and BaCote-Byer during a marijuana deal that he set up with Fox through phone calls and Snapchat messages.

Carboni drove his father’s maroon Ford F150 pickup truck to meet the teens, picking up Kelly along the way. When they arrived, Carboni said, he approached Fox’s Mercedes Benz and shot at the car multiple times, killing BaCote-Byer. He then shot Fox in the back several times, took the half pound of marijuana, and, with Kelly driving, fled.

At a separate hearing on Friday afternoon, Kelly admitted planning the crime with Carboni and driving the getaway car, said Assistant District Attorney Scott Frank Frame.

At Carboni’s sentencing, Frame said that because he was 17 at the time of the murders, prosecutors could not seek a sentence of life in prison, a term that is mandatory for adults convicted of such crimes. Nevertheless, he said, the 32½-to-60-year sentence the District Attorney’s Office agreed on with Carboni’s lawyer was significant.

Carboni’s attorney, Andrew Levin, called the case “very tragic” and lamented the loss of two lives. But he said the sentence would make it possible for Carboni to make a life for himself decades from now after serving his time behind bars.