Bond was denied Tuesday for a 13-year-old girl accused of killing her 2-year-old half-sister last month, though the judge hearing the teen’s case said he might reconsider his decision.
“It’s early in the process for me. I need more,” said DeKalb County Superior Court Judge Mark Anthony Scott. “I believe she poses a significant threat.”
The suspect’s attorney, Melanie Williams, asked that a signature bond be issued that would have placed the eighth grader in her great-grandmother’s custody.
“They have not seen any violent tendencies before,” Williams said of the girl’s family, many of whom were in the courtroom Tuesday. “Her grandmother does not fear for her safety.”
Prosecutor Darius Pattillo opposed bond, citing the “heinous and inexplicable nature of the offense.”
The 13-year-old, wearing a T-shirt, jeans and handcuffs, sat expressionless during the hearing. She’s accused of stabbing her half-sister, Sasha, seven times in the chest area on Nov. 19, then stashing the body behind the family’s townhouse on Waldrop Trail in DeKalb.
(In accordance with its longstanding policy, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution will not identify the juvenile even though she has been publicly identified and charged as an adult.)
Williams said the suspect’s family supports her release from the DeKalb Regional Youth Detention Center, where she’s spent the past 22 days.
“The family has embarked on the healing process,” she said, adding the girl’s parents have talked with her since Sasha’s death.
Father Shelton Ray declined comment after Tuesday’s hearing.
Scott indicated he’d give the defense another opportunity at bond.
“The difficulty the court is having is that no one is offering any explanation for treatment, or how she got here,” Scott said. “I have some concerns right now. How do you protect the grandma? Frankly, I’d need more before I let her go home.”
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