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3 Teens Jailed In Alleged Murder Plot, 2 Still On Loose

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DURHAM, N.C. — Three Durham teenagers accused of ambushing and killing a 20-year-old man made their first appearance in a Durham County courtroom Wednesday as authorities continued their search for two more suspects in the same case.

A judge denied bond for Nicole L. Smith, 17, who allegedly lured the victim, Adam Christopher Lutz to her neighborhood on Aug. 8, where two other men were apparently waiting in a wooded area, a Durham County prosecutor told the judge. Smith has been charged with first-degree murder.

Those two men, Michael Harrison Hunt Jr. and Tyrone Lamont Baker, both 19 of Durham, according to investigators, then shot Lutz in the back of his head while he sat in his car. Authorities have also charged them with first-degree murder but are still searching for them.

Anyone with information about Hunt and Baker's whereabouts is asked to contact the Durham County Sheriff's Office at 919-560-0900.

Prosecutors said Stephen Kyle Knight, 19, and Janeen Webb, 16, then carried away Hunt and Baker in a getaway car. Both Knight and Webb have been charged with accessory after the fact to murder and are each being held in the Durham County Jail on a $50,000 bond.

Family members of those arrested said Wednesday that the suspects were set up and that none of them had ever before been in any serious trouble. The victim's father, said he could not understand why anyone would want to hurt him.

"I don't know what in the world could be going on for somebody to be blatantly luring someone to be killed," said Brian Lutz, who described his son as someone whom his friends loved.

"They thought the world of him. If you were one of his friends, you had a friend for life," Lutz said.

Adam Lutz leaves behind a 6-month-old son.

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