SC boy, 13, facing murder in teen’s killing possibly acted in self-defense, lawyer says
A 13-year-old South Carolina boy who could be prosecuted as an adult on a murder charge may have been protecting himself when he stabbed another teen to death last month, his lawyer told a judge in court Thursday.
However, prosecutors say the boy was playing with a knife and told others he was “going to jail tonight” before he killed the other boy with a slash to the neck in Chester County on Feb. 11.
Thursday’s hearing held in Lancaster County Family Court before visiting Judge Joseph Smithdeal of Greenwood is required under a South Carolina law that gives juveniles charged with a crime a chance to be released after 30 days in custody.
Emotions ran high as family members of both the suspect and the victim told the judge about the impact of the crime on people from the small rural community of Blackstock in Chester. Blackstock is located between Rock Hill and Columbia.
The 13-year-old boy appeared in court but did not speak.
The Herald is not naming the suspect or the victim because of their ages. To protect the identities of both, The Herald is also not naming family members.
New: Defense, family say more to the story
For the first time, 6th Circuit Public Defender William Frick said the suspect may have been trying to protect himself at the time of the killing.
“We are looking at a possible self-defense here,” Frick told Judge Smithdeal.
Frick told the judge he has an investigator from his office looking at the stabbing death circumstances, and did not provide any other details supporting a self-defense claim. The investigator was in court but did not testify.
The suspect’s grandfather and aunt expressed condolences to the victim’s family, but told the judge that so far, only one side of the story has been told.
Both asked for the suspect to be released to the aunt’s custody pending trial.
Frick has said the boy suffers from bipolar disorder but has never received proper treatment.
Killing in a car after a basketball game
6th Circuit Senior Assistant Solicitor Ashley McMahan told the judge Thursday the suspect stabbed the other teen while both were in a car driven by the suspect’s sister. The victim was the sister’s boyfriend.
The boy was in the backseat on the way home from a basketball game playing with the knife, McMahan said. The accused killer stabbed the victim in the front passenger seat from the backseat where a fourth person also sat, McMahan said.
A fight then ensued before the victim died at a hospital, she said.
“I am concerned about his danger to others,” McMahan told the judge.
The suspect has a disciplinary record dating back to elementary school that includes physical attacks on other children and taking a butcher knife to school, McMahan said.
And although the killing happened Feb. 11, the boy did not go to school for weeks before the killing, she said. In a previous hearing last month, McMahan said the suspect boasted that he was going to have the victim jumped the day of the attack.
Victims grandmother: Suspect chose to kill
The 16-year-old boy who died had several family members in court Thursday. His grandmother, who said she knows some of the suspect’s family from church events and loves all children, spoke to the judge about the violent act that took her grandson’s life.
“A part of our heart was stolen — was cut out,” the grandmother said. “One of my babies is gone for nothing.”
She told the judge the suspect “made a choice” when he stabbed her grandson. The boy was not going to school at the time and was disobedient, then her grandson was stabbed in a sneak attack, she said. He should not be released to his family because there was no intervention earlier, she said.
“If you say you are ‘going to jail by 10 o’clock tonight,’ you know what you are doing,” the grandmother said to the judge.
Judge: Boy remains jailed for community safety
Two previous judges in hearings last month kept the suspect in juvenile jail pending trial after he was arrested shortly after the killing.
At the end of Thursday’s hearing, Judge Smithdeal declined to release the suspect, saying “the safety of the community” and of the boy himself requires he remain at the S.C. Department of Juvenile Justice before trial.
Smithdeal expressed his sympathy for the families who are going through both the death of a young man and the arrest of an even younger boy on a serious charge.
“To lose a young son, brother, nephew, grandson, and then another son, grandson, because of violence, I agree it is a tragedy for everyone involved,” Smithdeal said.
What happens now?
The boy faces charges of murder and possession of a weapon during a violent crime.
Prosecutors have filed documents seeking to try the boy as an adult rather than as a juvenile. That means the boy could face much harsher punishment if convicted. Any sentence in juvenile court ends at age 22. In adult court, punishment could be 30 years in prison if convicted of murder.
Only a Family Court judge can issue an order to try a child as an adult. And before a hearing is held to see if that can happen, the boy must be evaluated by state officials. That process has just started and could take months, lawyers in the case said Thursday.
The boy and his legal team have the right to challenge any attempt to have him face an adult trial.
