A St. Louis judge ruled Wednesday that the 15-year-old girl accused of putting classmate Kaylee Gein into a coma will not be prosecuted as an adult.
The judge looked into the school history of the suspect, whose name has not been released, and has met with the girl and her family several times since the brutal fight outside Hazelwood East High School in March, but the incident involved a juvenile. The matter was to be tried in court.
Gein, 16, was seriously injured in the March 8 fight.
Shocking video showed the assailant on top of the girl and repeatedly slamming her head against the pavement.
She woke up from her coma a few days later, but her family said she still has a long road to recovery.
The boy’s defense attorney, Greg Smith, said in court Wednesday that Gain had previously been suspended from school for fighting and that he punched the 15-year-old first.
Mr Gaine’s parents were also in court.
Smith argued that his client had a stable home life, was doing well in school and was well-behaved while in juvenile detention.
Gein was hospitalized for several months after the scuffle and then returned home.
She’s doing well but still suffers from short-term memory loss, attends speech and physical therapy several days a week and is scheduled to undergo surgery to reattach parts of her skull.
Brian Kemmerer, an attorney for Ms. Gein’s family, said in an update on Ms. Gein’s condition earlier this month that she continues to suffer from “trauma, fear and pain resulting from this incident.”
Kammerer said Gein’s family “respects” the judge’s decision to try the 15-year-old as a juvenile or an adult.
The suspect’s family claims the boy acted in self-defense and that he received numerous racist threats after the incident.
