Teenager sentenced to at least 20 years in fatal shooting outside Oliver Citywide Academy

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- A 19-year-old who pleaded guilty to the fatal shooting of a 15-year-old student outside Oliver Citywide Academy two years ago was sentenced to at least 20 years in prison.

Court paperwork shows a judge sentenced Eugene Watson to 15 to 30 years for murder of the third degree. A conspiracy charge and a firearms violation bring his total sentence to 20 to 40 years.

On Jan. 19, 2022, police were called to Pittsburgh Public Schools' Oliver Citywide Academy just before 2 p.m. When officers arrived, they found 15-year-old Marquis Campbell, who had been shot in the chest while inside a school van. He was taken to a local hospital, where he later died. 

Eugene Watson, who was 18 at the time, was arrested along with his younger brother in April of 2023.

According to the criminal complaint, surveillance video showed the brothers walking near the van before police said Eugene Watson shot twice into the van's partially opened window, hitting Campbell before Watson and his brother ran off. Investigators said they believed the brothers had beef with Campbell, and the teens were involved in three fights at another school they attended a few months before the shooting. 

In October, Watson pleaded guilty to third-degree murder, conspiracy and firearms violations. 

His brother was initially charged as an adult with homicide in connection with the case, but the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported that those charges were withdrawn and he was adjudicated delinquent in juvenile court on one conspiracy count.

Campbell was remembered as a boy with a contagious smile that lit up a room. His principal said, "He could really make everybody laugh. He liked to joke with people and tease people that he knows and he cares about."