She will remain within the juvenile court system for the entirety of her sentence as a result of her plea, Clark County Assistant Prosecutor Tracey Lockhart-Williams, who handled the case, said.
“Pursuant to Ohio law, juveniles under the age of 14 at the time of the offense are ineligible for transfer for prosecution as an adult,” Lockhart-Williams said. “What that means for sentencing is that the Juvenile Court will have jurisdiction over this youth until her 21st birthday, at which time the court loses jurisdiction.”
The girl is scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 5 and Lockhart-Williams said the state plans to request the court impose a mandatory commitment to the Department of Youth Services until the girl is 21, meaning she will serve at least seven years.
Sentencing for a juvenile is slightly different, Lockhart-Williams said, as sentences “function differently than adult sentences as they focus on rehabilitation rather than punishment.”
“A typical juvenile sentence ranges from a minimum of six months to a year and extending through a maximum of the youth’s 21st birthday. However, in this case, because the youth plead to a charge of murder, there is a mandatory commitment to a Department of Youth Services facility until she turns 21,” Lockhart-Williams said.
The girl, who pleaded guilty Friday, was one of two involved in a plot to attack her family. The second teen, Natasha Ellis, who was 15 at the time of the crime, pleaded guilty to murder and attempted murder on June 11. She was sentenced to at least 22 years in an adult prison.
Ellis was accused of carrying out an attack on the teen’s family members on May 23, 2019, at their home on North Church Street in New Carlisle. The younger girl’s mother, Lee A. Moore, 36, died from multiple stab wounds from the attack. The girl’s father and 17-year-old brother were also stabbed but survived.
Clark County sheriff’s deputies said in a July hearing that even though Ellis may have acted alone during the attack, most of the planning was done in unison with the girl.
In an interrogation video shown in the July hearing, Ellis told investigators that the younger girl left weapons out in the home for her to use in the stabbing.
At the same hearing, a deputy testified in court that Ellis told her the night of the attack the two girls were in communication right up until moments before the stabbing occurred.
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