LEON THOMAS III - 4 yo/ Accused: 14 yo female cousin - Indianapolis IN

Girl, 14, Held in Death of Her 4-Year-Old Cousin


INDIANAPOLIS

May 6, 2012 (AP)

Indianapolis police say a 14-year-old girl found covered in blood faces a
preliminary murder charge in her 4-year-old cousin's stabbing death.

Police spokesman Kendale Adams said Sunday the girl was arrested after
being questioned by officers. She's being held on a preliminary murder
charge at the Marion County Juvenile Detention Center.

Prosecutors will determine whether she'll be formally charged in the death of Leon Thomas III.

Officers were called about 11 p.m. Saturday to an Indianapolis
apartment, where they found the bleeding boy. He was pronounced dead at a
local hospital.

Police later found the 14-year-old girl, covered in blood and walking along a nearby street.

Adams says the boy and his 11-year-old sister were at their
grandparent's apartment at the time of the attack. No additional details
were released.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/indianapolis-police-boy-fatally-stabbed-16288565#.T6cV-sXNKNY

A well-worn lawn chair sat next to the front door at 2735 N.
Graham Ave., the townhouse's white mini-blinds cranked tightly shut on a
beautiful Sunday afternoon.
Sitting on the air-conditioning unit
near the back door, a crumpled pair of latex gloves was the only outward
sign of the unimaginable tragedy that took place inside the Eastside
apartment just hours earlier -- an as-of-yet unexplained violent
outburst that left a 4-year-old boy dead and his 14-year-old female
cousin facing a preliminary charge of murder.
Watching a group of
small children playing in the sunshine a few doors down from the scene
of the slaying, a woman who did not want to give her name grimaced when
asked about the killing.
"It's so sad," she said. "You have to wonder what was going on for a 14-year-old to do something like that."
That
is a question police, prosecutors and a judge will have to sort
through. And the answers they find could weigh heavily on the young
girl's fate.
Indiana law allows children as young as 10 to be waived to adult court on a murder charge.
Settling
on the appropriate direction in a case involving such a young suspect,
according to legal and criminal justice experts, is a complicated
decision that often requires looking beyond the crime at hand. It's a
process that will play out over the coming days and weeks -- maybe even
longer.
A thorough, measured approach is essential.
Charged as an adult, the teen could face 45 to 65 years in prison if convicted of murder.
If
the case remains in the juvenile system, where the focus is more on
rehabilitation than punishment, the teen could be held in a juvenile
facility only until her 22nd birthday.
Both options have their supporters and critics.
For
now, the 14-year-old suspect is being held at the Marion County
Juvenile Detention Center. Homicide detectives preliminarily charged her
with murder.
The first in what is likely to be a series of
difficult -- and controversial -- decisions on how to move forward with
the case will not come until after the evidence is reviewed by the
Marion County prosecutor.
Experts told The Indianapolis Star that
such a decision will have to take into account a number of factors,
including motive and intent, the girl's background and other
considerations such as any possible mental illness or history of being
abused.
"You have to look at the triggers," explained Herbert
Nieburg, a forensic psychologist and professor of criminal justice at
Mitchell College in New London, Conn.
"Why did she do it? Was it
premeditated?" he said. "Did she have a history of violence? A lot will
be determined by what they find in her background."
Sunday
afternoon, there were few hints to help answer those critical questions.
Police released only limited information, and no detailed explanations,
as to what happened inside the apartment where 4-year-old Leon Thomas
III was stabbed -- apparently multiple times -- about 11 p.m. Saturday.
An
incident report filed by Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department
officers who responded said the boy was taken to Riley Hospital for
Children, where he was pronounced dead.
The 14-year-old girl,
identified in an IMPD statement as the victim's cousin, was taken into
custody a short time later after she was found walking along Ritter
Avenue, several blocks from the scene. The report described her as
"covered in blood."
Police said the boy and his 11-year-old sister
were visiting the home of their grandparents, Bryan and Angie Shanks,
when Leon was stabbed. The report said the grandparents were upstairs in
the two-story townhouse when the stabbing occurred downstairs.
Two
people who could possibly shed more light on what happened behind the
closed doors and blinds in the Beechwood Garden Apartments weren't
talking Sunday. A couple who pulled up in front of the unit a little
after 1 p.m. got out of their car and hustled, heads down, into the
apartment. They waved away a reporter, declining to comment as they
slammed the door shut.
A check of online IMPD records revealed
Angie Shanks had reported her 14-year-old granddaughter as a runaway in
February. The report, which listed Shanks as the girl's court-appointed
guardian, quoted Shanks saying "this is not like her and that she has
not been reported as a runaway in the past."
An older police
report from 2005, also involving Shanks and the girl, indicates that
there was "an ongoing dispute" between Shanks and the child's mother
over custody of the girl.
Calls to the Shanks home Sunday were not answered.
Recent
Indiana cases involving young children accused of murder in the
metropolitan area don't offer any clear pattern on the part of
prosecutors and judges in dealing with them.
In November, the
Morgan County prosecutor elected to keep in juvenile court the case of a
12-year-old boy accused of fatally shooting his 6-year-old brother.
In
2009, a Marion County boy, who was 14 at the time he was alleged to
have killed a man during a robbery, was tried as an adult. A year
earlier, an Indianapolis boy, who was 15 at the time of his arrest, was
tried as a juvenile in the killing of an elderly woman during a robbery.
Larry
Landis, executive director of the Indiana Public Defender Council, said
the decision often comes down to whether prosecutors and judges believe
a suspect is beyond rehabilitation in the juvenile system. Part of the
evaluation, he added, will involve looking at the child's past,
including any other criminal or violent activity.
Landis said he doesn't expect the prosecutor to rush to a decision.
"It usually takes a little time," he said, "to figure out what was going on with a kid in a case like this."
Nieburg,
the psychologist and criminal justice professor, said he is not
generally a fan of treating juvenile offenders as adults. He added that
he did not know any details of the Indianapolis case.
"If she did
this, she should be held responsible and there should be consequences,
no doubt about it," he said. "But that should be limited to being with
people her own age."
Nieburg said it generally doesn't make sense to treat juveniles the same as adults.
"Their
brains are different," he said. "And a 14-year-old is very different
than a 17- or 18-year-old. Frequently, when you put a juvenile into an
adult prison, they just come out a better criminal."
Investigators must determine what prompted the girl's actions, Nieburg said.
"That
kind of a stabbing is an anger-oriented assault," he said, "and often
is the result of being de-inhibited for some reason."
http://www.indystar.com/article/20120507/LOCAL/205070306/Girl-14-faces-preliminary-charge-of-murder-in-4-year-old-cousin-s-stabbing?odyssey=tab|mostpopular|text|LOCAL