Judge Says St. Louis Girl, 15, Who Bashed Another Girl’s Head Into the Pavement in Vicious Teen Fight, Will Not Be Tried as an Adult

A judge has ruled that the 15-year old girl who grievously wounded her classmate, 16, in a fight near their St. Louis school, smashing her head repeatedly into the pavement, will be tried as a juvenile, despite pressure from politicians – including Missouri’s senior senator — that she be tried as an adult.Maurnice DeClue has been the subject of a contentious debate about race and juveniles in the court system, with victim’s advocates and lawmakers demanding she be severely punished, while her family and some other community members begged for mercy.In a now-viral video taken on March 8, Maurnice can be seen repeatedly bashing the head of Kaylee Gain, 16, into the pavement when a fight broke out between the schoolmates and others just a few blocks from Hazelwood East High School in St. Louis, Missouri. According to a juvenile officer’s testimony from earlier this month, it was Kaylee who threw the first punch.On Wednesday, Judge Jason Dodson decided that Maurnice, who is Black, would be tried as a juvenile – a decision that falls in line with a juvenile officer’s recommendation earlier this month. The judge did, however, deny Maurnice’s attorney Greg Smith’s motion to have his client released to her parents on house arrest with a GPS monitor.Kaylee Gain, age 16, is walking again after she underwent a brutal beating near her St. Louis high school at the hands of a schoolmate, Maurnice DeClue. FacebookThe father of Kaylee, who is white, said, “both [Kaylee and Maurnice] agreed to the fight.” The violence was reportedly the culmination of heated text exchanges and tension between the two teens’ rival friend groups. What eventually led to the fight was a scuffle between Kaylee and Maurnice’s friend at the high school just a day prior. Thankfully, that fight was broken up by a school security official before anyone was seriously hurt. Kaylee was subsequently suspended from school but decided to meet up with Maurnice the next day, regardless.In the now viral video, Kaylee can be seen lying on the ground, convulsing. She was later taken to a nearby hospital in critical condition with injuries including a fractured skull and brain bleeding. But promising updates from her family have said that Kaylee may be on the road to recovery. She is now “living at home,” but a GoFundMe update from May 9 revealed that she still had a long way to go.“While hospitalized, Kaylee underwent a craniectomy, which is a neurosurgical procedure that involved removing a portion of Kaylee’s skull in order to relieve the pressure on her brain. The portion of Kaylee’s skull that was removed still has not been put back in place,” the update reads. “Ever since Kaylee underwent this procedure it has been necessary for her to wear a custom helmet in order to protect her brain in the event of a fall. Kaylee is scheduled to undergo an additional surgery to reattach this portion of her skull which will require yet another hospitalization.”The update continued by explaining that Kaylee “spends around three days per week in physical and speech therapy” and still struggles with “short term memory loss.” Further testing this summer should help doctors understand the long-term effect of Kaylee’s injuries on her “cognitive function.”Kaylee Gain, 16, and Maurnice DeClue, 15, prepare to fight on March 8th, 2024 at St. Louis. YouTubeThe update continues that, “Kaylee continues to meet with a counselor to assist with her mental well being as she copes with the trauma, fear and pain that have arisen from this incident,” the update says.The judge’s recommendation for Maurnice to be tried as a juvenile was not a shock given that a May 10 hearing saw a juvenile officer recommend Maurnice, whose family said she was an honor roll student, be treated as a juvenile by the courts. The unnamed officer said Maurnice would “respond well and engage and communicate well with the court” if she was allowed to remain in the juvenile system.“We look for repetitive types of offenses and this is not part of a repetitive pattern,” the officer said, adding that Maurnice had achieved the highest category for good behavior since being in custody.At that hearing, Maurnice’s adoptive mother told the court her daughter never meant to hurt Kaylee as badly as she had. She and the rest of Maurnice’s family has also previously said that Maurnice was the victim of bullying.The fundraiser for Kaylee Gain has passed $470,000. GoFundMe“There was no malice, she was just defending herself,” Maurnice’s mother said. “I hate for her education to be interrupted. She had no intention or thought that this would happen. We are all very sorry and so is she.”This decision comes after politicians, including the likes of Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, have called for Maurnice to be tried as an adult. He also previously opened an investigation into what he calls Hazelwood East High School’s “radical” Diversity, Equity and Inclusion policies because he says they were to blame for the fight. It’s unclear what’s come of that investigation, but a lawyer for the school district, Cindy Ormsby, called out Mr. Bailey’s “obvious racial bias against majority minority school districts” in response. The high school, according to U.S. News & World Report, is 99 percent black and has an economically disadvantaged student percentage of 69 percent.

Judge Says St. Louis Girl, 15, Who Bashed Another Girl’s Head Into the Pavement in Vicious Teen Fight, Will Not Be Tried as an Adult

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