By RUMMANA HUSSAIN
Chicago Sun-Times
De’Kayla Dansberry | Facebook
A Cook County Juvenile Court judge on Thursday ruled that the minor accused of fatally stabbing 15-year-old De’Kayla Dansberry would only be sentenced as a juvenile if she is found guilty of the crime.
Associate Judge Stuart Paul Katz cited the girl’s age at the time of the murder, 13, as well as her good grades, when denying the prosecution’s motion for an extended juvenile jurisdiction, which would make the minor subject to an adult sentence if she failed to complete her juvenile sentence satisfactorily.
The girl could have chosen to stay home, not taken the knife her mother offered, or go unarmed to the fight on May 14, 2016, that led to De’Kayla’s “stupid and senseless” murder outside the Parkway Gardens housing complex, Katz said.
But the judge also noted that, based on her psychological evaluations and lack of disciplinary problems while in custody, the girl shows a “strong likelihood of rehabilitation.”
The girl may not have been physically beaten at home, but moving 13 times in the last five years was a form of abuse and neglect, Katz said.
Tamika Gayden | Chicago Police
Katz went on to lambast the teen’s mother, Tamika Gayden, who allegedly egged the girl on by telling her to take the murder weapon from her purse and to use it if necessary against those who had been harassing her and her friends.
“This is a woman who should never be allowed to have children in her custody and control,” Katz said as Gayden looked on, dressed in Cook County Jail garb.
Gayden, of the 6400 block of South King Drive, also was charged with murder for her alleged role in the incident, as well as felony contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
Members of De’Kayla’s family quickly left the courtroom after Katz gave his ruling.
The accused girl, now 14, sat in the courtroom, mostly with her head tilted to the side, while drawing a flower at Thursday’s hearing.
Assistant Public Defender Tamar Sirkin and her colleagues argued that she had acted in self-defense after De’Kayla taunted her and her pals, then threw punches at her friend.
Workers at the Juvenile Detention facility have noted that the girl was in “shock” and looked like a “deer in the headlights” when she was initially charged with murder.
Since then, she has isolated herself and endured crying spells, bad dreams and guilt, Sirkin said.
When she ran back into the third-floor apartment after the stabbing and learned De’Kayla had died, a friend heard her say to authorities, “Take me too. I did it too.”
Assistant State’s Attorney Elizabeth Schweitzer argued the girl knew what she was doing when she and her friends stopped playing cards and went to confront the other teens, with whom they had gotten into a shouting match from the third-floor apartment.
The girl, who was armed, went outside, pulling her pink hoodie over her head in an effort to conceal her identity, Schweitzer said.
One teenage witness said the girl looked “fed up” as she went outside, Schweitzer said. Another said she saw the girl trying to clean the knife after De’Kayla was stabbed and screamed, “I killed her. I killed her.”
“She could have remained in the periphery,” but the girl chose to stab De’Kayla in the chest within seconds of the fight, the prosecutor said.
Sirkin and Schweitzer both presented surveillance videos that captured the stabbing as two groups of girls fought in the street.
An unmarked squad car can be seen in a nearby intersection as the brawl unfolded.
An older woman was injured when she tried to stop the rumble before it turned deadly, Schweitzer said.