Benjamin Tiller found guilty of murdering MaKayla Dyer after shooting her

An 11-year-old boy has been found guilty of first degree murder for shooting an eight-year-old girl in her chest with a shotgun. Benjamin Nicolas Tiller will spend the next eight years in juvenile prison and will remain incarcerated until his 19th birthday, according to a court document obtained byWATE in Knoxville.

An 11-year-old boy has been found guilty of first degree murder for shooting an eight-year-old girl in her chest with a shotgun. 

Benjamin Nicolas Tiller will spend the next eight years in juvenile prison and will remain incarcerated until his 19th birthday, according to a court document obtained by WATE in Knoxville.

The boy was found guilty of first-degree murder for shooting MaKayla Dyer in the chest with a shotgun after she refused to let him play with her puppy.

MaKayla Dyer, who was fatally shot in her chest with a shotgun by an 11-year-old boy after she refused to let him play with her puppy 

MaKayla Dyer, who was fatally shot in her chest with a shotgun by an 11-year-old boy after she refused to let him play with her puppy 

During the October 3 incident, MaKayla and her sister were talking to the boy from outside the mobile home in White Pine, Tennessee, where the boy was staying.

The adults of the home were inside watching TV in another room.

Speaking to the girls through a window of the mobile home, the boy asked MaKayla if he could play with her puppy, but she refused.

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Tiller then said he would 'be right back' and took a BB gun and a 12-gauge shotgun from a closet. When he arrived back at the mobile home, he told the girls that he had guns, according to the document.

After MaKayla laughed at him and told him that she didn't believe the guns were real, Tiller pointed the shotgun through the window of the home at MaKayla and fired.

The bullet hit her just above her heart, the document states.

Benjamin Tiller has been sentenced to spend the rest of his childhood in custody after shooting MaKayla with a 12-gauge shotgun. A small memorial was placed outside her home where she was killed in October 

Benjamin Tiller has been sentenced to spend the rest of his childhood in custody after shooting MaKayla with a 12-gauge shotgun. A small memorial was placed outside her home where she was killed in October 

Tiller's great-grandparents, Dianna and Jack Houchins, told WATE that they didn't believe their great-grandson pulled the trigger. 

'We believe that when the autopsy is revealed, it will show that the victim was shot from the ground, at close range,' said Dianna Houchins. 

She said she believes another child pointed it at Makayla and accidentally shot her. 

According to MaKayla's obituary she had turned eight just three weeks before her death. 

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