Juvenile Justice in Maryland is a Joke

In 2021 a fight outside a Dave & Busters in Capitol Heights, Maryland resulted in a 13-year-old boy shot to death (and another boy stabbed). Even more shocking, the killer soon turned himself into police. He was a 12-year-old from Washington, DC.

Police say King Douglas was murdered Saturday night in a Capitol Heights shopping center parking lot and the accused shooter is a 12-year-old boy…

Ja’Ka McKnight, King’s mother, said she dropped her son off at Dave and Busters Saturday evening, never realizing it would be the last time she’d see him alive…

Police responded to Ritchie Station Court around 10:15 p.m. Saturday night. They said a large group of teens was hanging out there and there had been an argument. King was found dead at the scene, and a second 13-year-old had been stabbed.

Police said Monday that the 12-year-old boy from D.C. accused of shooting King later came forward with his mother and confessed to the crime. Police said he claims his friend handed him the gun during when the fight broke out. He’s being charged as a juvenile and has not been identified.

The shooter, who has never been identified because of his age, was found “involved” in the shooting which is the juvenile court equivalent of a finding of guilty. He was finally sentenced in August 2022 by which point he’d turned 14. A judge gave him indefinite probation, which meant he would live at home with an ankle monitor. He would also be required to take anger management classes. The victim’s mother was shocked.

The judge told the court it’s his job to follow Maryland law when it comes to juveniles. He ordered the 14-year-old to indefinite supervised probation. 

The States Attorney’s office had requested that the teen be held at a juvenile corrections facility, but in making the decision, the judge sided with juvenile services.

The 14-year-old must undergo both family and individual counseling and anger management. He’ll also have a GPS monitoring device put back on…

A “slap in the face,” is what Ja’Ka McKnight, Douglas’ mom, called the sentence.

“To completely allow this boy to have freedom after a murder and saying, ‘You know I understand how serious the crime is,’ and then allow this boy — there is no worse crime than murder. And you allowed this child to get off a murder case that he admitted to. It’s crazy to me,” McKnight said. “It’s heartbreaking. It’s sad.  I’m worried. I’m really worried for our juveniles.”

Jump forward to this week and the killer’s indefinite probation just ended. At age 17 he is free.

Judge Wytonja L. Curry officially closed the case against the now-17-year-old, agreeing with his defense that he had completed all the services provided for his rehabilitation and shown progress at school…

Defense attorney Kimberly Righter asked Curry, the judge, to focus on who the teenager has become. He has completed all services offered by the Maryland Department of Juvenile Services and got bumped to unsupervised probation after his most recent hearing, this May. Righter submitted letters of praise from his teachers Monday, which Curry paused to read and described afterward as noting “his transformation.”

Consider me a skeptic of the shooter’s “transformation.” Last year, when he was 16, he was weeks away from having his probation ended when prosecutors discovered his attempts to become a rapper.

Last week, Celestin-Antonin said, a private Instagram account was discovered, referencing a Threads account and a YouTube channel with multiple videos linked to the teen.

On the accounts, she said, the boy “boasts proudly” about shootings and gun violence, taunting the victim’s family with lyrics about making “the victim famous by putting him on Fox and in a box.”

“The respondent, in his own words, has treated probation like a joke,” Celestin-Antonin said.

Transformed my ass. He was still celebrating this last year. But this year all is forgiven and he’s out. Once again, the victim’s mother thinks the complete lack of punishment is an outrage.

McKnight has long rebuked what she and prosecutors see as the lack of punishment the shooter received, which she called “a slap on the wrist.”…

McKnight has since advocated alongside other grieving mothers and plans to keep doing so in her son’s honor. McKnight said she wants to see youths held more accountable for serious crimes, like an effort to allow 14-year-olds in D.C. to be charged as adults for serious crimes that’s supported by Republicans in Congress and the Trump administration.

That there are adults, including this idiot judge, who can look the victim’s family in the eye and call this justice is infuriating. Four years of home probation for murder is not justice. And the fact that he’s obviously not rehabilitated (he certainly wasn’t last year) makes the whole thing a farce. How long before this coddled kid is back in prison? My guess is not long.

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