A 15-year-old girl who pleaded guilty to manslaughter for killing a cheerleader has learned how many years she will spend in prison for the stabbing that claimed the life of 16-year-old Kayla Green.
“My family is broken and our hearts will never be fixed,” said Lavern Green, the mother of the victim, as the teen cheerleading captain’s family reacted to the ruling. .
A 15-year-old boy who admitted to the stabbing was sentenced to “three to nine years in prison,” Supreme Court Judge Susan Kakaas said in a statement.
A teenage girl, who has not been identified because of her age, has admitted to stabbing Kayla in April 2021 after a parade celebration for the school’s basketball team at Mount Vernon.
Another girl, 16-year-old Manise Simpson, was also stabbed with a knife but survived. She released her statement regarding the impact on her victims along with her family in Kayla.
“This was a deliberate, senseless and vicious crime that caused immeasurable pain,” said Westchester County Deputy Attorney General James Babelo.
Police in Mount Vernon said they were able to identify a suspect from a small number of videos of the attack. The motive remains unknown.
Addressing his family, the defendant sobbed, “I wish I could have done more than say sorry.”
However, the victim’s family did not accept the girl’s apology.
The victim’s aunt, Tathania Rhoden, said, “For murder, three years is not a big deal. ‘And then you have a young woman jumping rope outside after three years.’
The family’s attorney vowed to hold the school officials and others accountable as well.
“All parties, all systems failed. There was a young woman in the school that wreaked havoc on the Mount Vernon school system,” Green family attorney Lauren Lazer said. was fully aware of what this young woman was doing within the school, which was dangerous to all young people at the school and did nothing.”
Sentenced teenage girls are held in juvenile detention centers until they turn 18. Depending on her actions, she will be released within the next three years and will not serve time in state prison.
