Teen accused of deadly Arlington Lamar HS shooting will not be tried as an adult
FORT WORTH, Texas - The teenage murder suspect charged in the murder of an Arlington high school student will not be tried as an adult. The judge in the case made the ruling Friday.
During that hearing, the student who survived the deadly school shooting testified Friday morning in a certification hearing for the teen murder suspect.
15-year-old Jonathan is in custody for the shooting death of Jashawn Poirier. He was killed outside Lamar High School in Arlington back in March.
Judge Alex Kim considered four factors in Jonathan’s certification hearing: the nature of the crime, age and maturity at the time of the offense, any previous record and likelihood of rehabilitation.
"I am not convinced that the efforts have been made to intervene or address the needs of this child to convince me that the juvenile justice system is not appropriate," he said.
Just before the start of school, police say Jonathan pulled a shotgun from his backpack, firing two rounds and killing Jashawn. A buckshot from the blast struck a 16-year-old girl.
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Motive in Arlington Lamar High School student's murder remains unclear
The high school student murdered on campus in Arlington last month would have celebrated his 17th birthday this week. His family is trying to make sense of just why he was gunned down allegedly by a 15-year-old boy.
She was actually not a student at Lamar and was sitting on a bench waiting to be transferred to another school when she was hit.
"At first, I didn’t know I had been shot. I had felt like, in the panic, somebody had accidentally elbowed me in the face," she recalled. "So I had went to, like, touch my face to, like, relieve the pain, and I brought my hand down and there was blood on my hand. So I was like, oh my goodness, I was shot in the face."
Prosecutors showed video of the shooting only to the judge and detective Krystallyne Robinson.
Judge still undecided if accused Lamar High School shooter will be tried as an adult
Judge Alex Kim said the victims’ family had expressed retaliation fears if the boy was released from detention. While the judge said he saw no evidence of that, he is keeping the teen in juvenile.
The detective said Jonathan alleged he had been sexually assaulted in October 2022 long before Jashawn’'s family moved to Texas.
The detective said Jashawn had nothing to do with any alleged sexual assault that police have been unable to corroborate. Two psychological evaluations held conflicting statements from Jonathan.
In closing, prosecutors said there is nothing about him that is truthful.
"He commits the most heinous of offenses. And what does he do when he gets over here? ‘I've got to come up with an excuse for why I did it. I'm going to falsely accuse two young men of raping men, and I’m going to use that as justification.’ That's what he says. ‘Here as my reason for doing this.’ That is the kind of individual that you are dealing with," said prosecutor Lloyd Whelcher.
It will be a trial by jury, and it will start in Judge Kim's juvenile district court on Aug. 21.