Murder suspect won’t be tried as adult

L.A. County judge rejects prosecutors’ request to transfer him from juvenile system.

A man accused of gunning down his 16-year-old girlfriend and her sister before setting their Westchester apartment on fire when he was a teenager in 2018 will not be tried as an adult, bringing an end to one of the most controversial cases of the early part of Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. George Gascón’s time in office.

L.A. County Superior Court Judge J. Christopher Smith ruled Wednesday that prosecutors failed to prove the suspect — whose identity The Times is withholding since he has been remanded to juvenile court — could not be rehabilitated within the juvenile justice system.

Prosecutors sought to try the defendant — who was 17 years and 11 months old at the time of the killings — as an adult in the deaths of 16year-old Sierra Brown and her sister Uniek Atkins.

Prosecutors initially sought to charge the defendant as an adult when he was arrested by Los Angeles police in 2018, but a transfer motion was not heard before then-Dist. Atty. Jackie Lacey was ousted by Gascón in the 2020 election cycle.

On his first day in office, Gascón issued a blanket order banning the practice of trying juveniles as adults, regardless of the crime. The policy was one of many that drew swift backlash against the reform-minded prosecutor.

Gascón told The Times in 2021 that he had “lost sleep” over the killings of Sierra and Uniek and considered making an exception to his policy.

Ultimately, Gascón ordered his prosecutors to withdraw their transfer motion in the case.

Facing mounting pressure over his office’s handling of the controversial Hannah Tubbs case last year, Gascón created a committee that could approve prosecutors’ requests to seek to try juveniles in adult court in extreme cases. The case involving the killing of Sierra and Uniek was the first to be approved by the committee.

As of late 2022, the committee had approved three total cases for transfer hearings, though the one involving the sisters’ killings is the only one to take place so far,