BOSTON, Jan. 6, 2015—The man who shot 17-year-old Evens Archer to death two summers ago admitted his guilt as his trial was set to begin, Suffolk County District attorney Daniel F. Conley said today.

JOHNNIE BONNIE (D.O.B. 6/28/92) of Jamaica Plain pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter for the June 29, 2014, shooting that claimed Archer’s life about three weeks later. He faces a 20-year prison term when he is sentenced tomorrow, with that term to start only after his current imprisonment on an unrelated 2015 gun conviction is complete.

Bonnie’s trial for murder was expected to begin today. Had it proceeded as scheduled, Assistant District Attorney Amy Galatis of the DA’s Homicide Unit would have introduced evidence and testimony to prove that Archer and Bonnie had attended the same party on Castle Court in Boston’s South End on the night of June 28 into the morning of June 29.

Galatis would have sought to prove that Bonnie fired a .22 caliber semiautomatic handgun, hitting Archer once in the head, at about 1:50 am before running away down East Berkeley Street and onto Shawmut Avenue.

Video evidence from a nearby camera did not capture the shooting or reveal the gunman’s identity, but it did show the assailant fleeing the scene and crouching near a sewer grate. When investigators searched the drain below, they recovered a firearm that was a ballistic match to the projectile that killed Archer.

The investigation continued for several months, culminating in Bonnie’s Nov. 14, 2014, indictment by the Suffolk County Grand Jury. By that time, Boston Police had arrested him on a new gun charge for which he was sentenced to a term of five to seven years.

Jassie Senwah was the DA’s assigned victim-witness advocate. Bonnie was represented by attorney Edward Hayden. Judge Jeffrey Locke will sentence him tomorrow at about 9:00 tomorrow morning in courtroom 906 of Suffolk Superior Court.

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All defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.