Victim’s mother: Attacker should stay in Clark County

Erica D. Johnson

Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2004 | 9:34 a.m.

The mother of a 14-year-old girl stabbed by her 13-year-old classmate said Tuesday that a juvenile detention facility in Northern Nevada was not the appropriate place for the teen who stabbed her daughter.

The mother said the two teens were best friends before the knifing at a Summerlin golf course last month. The victim has since recovered.

During a juvenile court hearing Tuesday, the victim's mother asked Family Court Judge William Voy not to sentence the eighth grader to a juvenile detention facility in Caliente.

The teen would be better served by a program for juvenile offenders in Clark County, where she would be closer to her family, the mother said.

"I feel like (she) needs a structured program. Some place where she can learn to handle her anger," she said.

The mother said the teen girls were inseparable before the incident. She said she could not explain what led the girl to attack her daughter.

"Something snapped in (the defendant) that night," she said. "I do feel that (she) deserves a chance. She's not a bad kid."

But Deputy District Attorney Jonathan VanBoskerck said the northern Nevada facility was an appropriate place for the teen, considering the seriousness of her crime.

He said the court "has to wonder what type of message it sends to the community" when handing down these types of sentences.

"Next time, maybe her aim is a little better, a little worse, an inch over and we have a dead kid," he said.

The debate came during a sentencing hearing for the teen, who faces a charge of battery with a deadly weapon causing substantial bodily harm in the juvenile system.

The case initially had been transferred to the adult system because the teen was charged with attempted murder. But prosecutors agreed to amend the charges and send the case to juvenile court if the teen acknowledged she committed the crime.

Voy held off on making a final decision about the teen's fate and set the case over for a May 18 status check. He is expected to determine at that time which option would work best for the teen.

On Tuesday, the teary-eyed 13-year-old, who was once a champion equestrian, read a letter to the court, apologizing for her crime.

"I pray to God for (the victim) every night, that she's no longer in any pain," she said, her blond hair pulled into two ponytails. "I don't want the community to view me as a threat, because I'm not."

Details also emerged Tuesday about a series of traumatic events in the teen's life that family members say culminated in the stabbing at the Badlands Golf Course near the Suncoast in Summerlin.

The teen's mother and grandmother said the girl's parents recently went through a messy divorce, which resulted in the loss of the family home.

The teen's grandmother said the teen "in the last year has lost everything she's ever had. Her home, her place to live, a vehicle, everything."

The argument at the golf course apparently occurred after the victim's mother decided the girls could no longer spend time together. On Tuesday, the victim's mother declined to explain what led to that decision.

During a previous hearing, the 13-year-old said she and the victim had gotten into an argument when she became angry and stabbed her in the side with a knife that had been inside her pocket.

And witnesses had told police that the 13-year-old told other teens she was going to stab the other girl.

"This wasn't a matter of just snapping," VanBoskerck said. "This was a matter of a conscious choice."

The girl's defense attorney, Kenneth Frizzell, said a court program in the Las Vegas Valley would be ample punishment for the teen, who has never been in trouble before.

"Basically, she had everything going for her," he said. "She's not a bad kid."