15-year-old to be tried as adult in fatal stabbing of mother’s boyfriend
A 15-year-old suspected of fatally stabbing his mother’s boyfriend will be charged as an adult, a judge ruled Monday.
Tayshawn Walker was visiting Las Vegas from Ohio on Jan. 2 with his mother, siblings, and his mother’s 47-year-old boyfriend, Justin Scott, according to a police report read in court by Family Court Judge Sunny Bailey.
Bailey said Tayshawn was fighting with his 12-year-old brother inside that evening inside a Holiday Inn at 3950 Koval Lane when Scott got in front of the younger child. Scott and the younger boy went to a separate room while Tayshawn’s mother tried to the calm the teen.
Prosecutor Kimberly Adams said the boy’s mother and brother saw Tayshawn stab Scott in the thigh.
Defense attorney James Robison said Tayshawn was defending himself because Scott had put him a chokehold and was kicking him. Robison said Scott had been charged with domestic battery three years earlier against Tayshawn, but the charge was dropped.
Adams quoted the police report in arguing that Tayshawn intended to kill Scott, because he grabbed a knife and was stabbing him after his family heard him say, “I hate him. I want to hurt him. I’m going to stab someone.”
Robison argued that the boy did not intend to kill Scott, although he admitted to stabbing him in an interview before he was read his Miranda Rights.
“We’re dealing with a young man with a mental health history, untreated if not undiagnosed,” he said.
After the hearing, Robert O’Brien, a chief deputy public defender who said he is the lead attorney on Tayshawn’s case, wrote in a statement that the boy is a victim of abuse.
“Tayshawn is a 15 year old victim who acted out against his abuser,” O’Brien wrote. “He is exactly the type of child that belongs in the juvenile system. As the child abuse he suffered comes to light, it will be clear the prosecutor is only telling half the story.”
The teen is expected to be moved to the Clark County Detention Center and charged with murder in Las Vegas Justice Court.
Contact Sabrina Schnur at sschnur@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0278. Follow @sabrina_schnur on Twitter.
