Family Of Murdered Retired Police Mocked By His Alleged Teenaged Killers In Court

Drama just erupted in the case of two teens, Jesus Ayala, 18, and Jzamir Keys, 16, charged with a hit-and-run that led to the death of a retired police chief.

According to reports, the defendants, who are both being charged as adults, were seen smirking at the victim's family and joking with each other in a recent court session to set their trial date.

It comes after Ayala boasted to police officers that he would be easily released due to his juvenile age at the time of the crime. The trial date for him and his counterpart has been set for September 2024.

In their court session earlier in the week, Jesus Ayala and Jzamir Keys were seen laughing and smiling at each other and even making lewd gestures at the victim's family.

The two teens are currently on trial for mowing down a 64-year-old retired police chief, Andreas Probst, with their car as he went on a morning bike ride on August 14.

A local Vegas news station was in the courtroom, saying, the defendants tried to stifle their laughter and hide from the camera by shading their faces with their hands. It was unclear what they were laughing about, but it was apparent they were disinterested in the proceedings.

Unsurprisingly, their antics rubbed Probst's family the wrong way, as seen by his daughter's scathing remarks to the press.

"How can you sit there after taking a man's life, and act like such an entitled p----?" the 27-year-old said, per New York Post. "They really had no remorse, that this is just a game to them."

Ayala and Keys' appalling actions come after bodycam footage released on Monday showed the former making light of his arrest. He had boasted that he would be out in 30 days, as he was a minor at the time.

"You think this juvenile [expletive] is gonna do some [expletive]? I'll be out in 30 days, I'll bet you," Ayala said to the police officers during his arrest.

He also seemed to show his surprise over being arrested, calling the incident a case of him only crashing his car. He was later seen further downplaying his actions, saying it wasn't worthy of making the news. In response, the arresting officer told him that his appalling actions wouldn't make his mother proud.

Contrary to Ayala's opinion, he and Keys are being tried as adults, as this is allowed under Nevada law for suspects from 13 years of age upwards on murder or attempted murder charges.

For his case, Ayala retained the services of attorney David Westbrook, while his counterpart is being defended by Daniel Hill.

Amid the rising interest in the case, Westbrook expressed his frustration at the release of the bodycam footage of the incident to the public.

He claimed that the release would make it difficult for him and his client to get jurors who wouldn't be biased about the case.

However, in response, Probst's widow accused the attorney and his client of being the ones who made the first move. Ayala and Keys had allegedly released a video on social media of running over the victim, which eventually found its way to the police.

"It was your people who put it in the media first, your clients are the ones that put that on social media," Crystal Probst said.

With the trial date now set for September 2024, Ayala and Keys will continue to remain in custody without bail due to the severity of their case.

However, Westbrook has said that he intends to pursue all available means to secure the release of his client pending the trial date.

If Ayala and Keys are ultimately proven guilty of their crime, they will not face the death penalty due to their ages at the time of the offense.

The harshest sentence they could potentially receive is a prison term of 20 years to life. This excludes any possible sentence for the other felony charges against them.