16-year-old indicted for murder in shooting of 15-year-old Lafayette student

A 16-year-old has been indicted on a murder charge in the shooting death of a 15-year-old Lafayette High School student in February.

Kevin Olmeda-Ortiz and another 15-year-old were shot outside a home on Garden Springs Drive on Feb. 6. Olmeda-Ortiz was shot in the head and died in the ambulance, police said in February.

Malachi Rashon Jackson, 16, was arrested the next day at Lafayette High School, according to Lexington Police. He is accused of shooting Olmeda and the other juvenile, according to an indictment that was filed in Fayette County Circuit Court Monday. He is also accused of committing first-degree robbery when "in the course of committing theft, he used or threatened the immediate use of physical force," the indictment states.

The brother of Olmeda-Ortiz, Joaquin Olmeda, said he found Kevin lying outside near Dogwood Drive, not far from Garden Springs Elementary School

Kevin "was such a good soul," his older brother said.

“He was always helping his friends, helping me and my dad out," Joaquin Olmeda said. "He was like a modern-day hippie. He never hurt nobody and loved his tie-dyed T-shirts.”

Olmeda is one of five teenagers who has been killed this year in Lexington.

Jackson is being held in the Fayette Regional Juvenile Detention Center and is scheduled for a June 1 arraignment.

This story was originally published May 23, 2018 at 1:44 PM with the headline "16-year-old indicted for murder in shooting of 15-year-old Lafayette student."