Iowa Teen Who Killed Navy Veteran Appeals Long Prison Sentence Since He’s ‘Young’

An Iowa teen was found guilty of shooting a Navy veteran dead after he went out for ‘hunting people’ within the territory of a rival gang. Dech Gach, hailing from Sioux City, was just 15 when he gunned down Larry Thompson. The 59-year-old was shot dead mercilessly at the threshold of his own home in Nebraska.

​The incident took place in March 2021. A thorough background check on Dech revealed that he was hired by his team solely for gunning down members of the rival gang. Their opponents were based out of North Omaha, which is where the murder of the innocent Navy man ended up taking place.

​Based on his involvement in the homicide, Dech Gach was sentenced to 87 years of rigorous imprisonment behind bars. Additionally, he wouldn’t be eligible to enter parole before 2060. However, in the wake of the extremely long sentence hanging in his name, the teen has now advanced a new appeal against it.

​Dech took his case to the Nebraska Court of Appeals, where his attorney urged on his behalf to be given a shorter sentence. The accused’s age at the time of his crime was remembered, which raised doubts over whether he was the one to pull the trigger on the Navy veteran.

​One of the other major loopholes in the prosecution against Dech Gach was the fact that his phone’s Bluetooth had disconnected from the vehicle of his team. It clearly explained that any call or message he would have made to the other members in the car before shooting had no proof whatsoever.

Considering this missing link of information, the defense raised major suspicion about whether the teenager actually fired the gun or not.

​Gach’s attorney Jim McGough added, “No one could explain as to why a call that was made and received by the phone did not register on the vehicle. The OnStar evidence was explained at trial. It could be manually disconnected from the Bluetooth, which would explain why the call did not register with the vehicle. All data with the vehicle stopped at 7:50, and the shooting didn’t happen until 20 minutes later.”

​However, the judge on the case counter argued that the statement of prison sentence was duly awarded to the teen, keeping in mind his young age.

​The victim, Larry Thompson, was nowhere closely associated with the rival gang, members of whom Dech was told to target. With the accused getting such a long prison sentence, the Navy veteran’s daughter expressed gratitude for her father’s perpetrator being punished.

​When the crime was discovered, cops were able to link the murder to Dech Gach quite easily. For instance, his DNA was found in multiple places, including the glove, which also had in it some kind of gun residue. It further matched the details of the murder weapon used to kill the Navy veteran.

​After the recent appeal made by the defendant, the Nebraska Supreme Court is said to be reviewing the trial transcripts so far. It is also expected that they go through the latest appeal filed by Dech Gach at the beginning of the year. The final ruling is scheduled for mid-May 2026.