BLACK: WESTCHESTER, CA Prosecutors seek to try defendant as an adult in brutal arson-murder after Gascón lifts his ban

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Prosecutors seek to try defendant as an adult in brutal arson-murder after Gascón lifts his ban​


James Queally
February 23, 2022·4 min read
Los Angeles County prosecutors have filed a motion seeking to try as an adult a defendant who was 17 when accused of fatally shooting two sisters in 2018, marking the first such move since Dist. Atty. George Gascón backtracked last week on his blanket ban on trying those charged with crimes as minors in adult court.

Sierra Brown, 16, and her older sister, Uniek Atkins, were shot and killed in a [BLACK AREA] Westchester apartment before the defendant doused the residence with bleach and set it on fire, prosecutors allege in court records. The defendant, who is now 21, had been dating Sierra.

The Times is not identifying the defendant because he was a minor at the time of the killings and his transfer hearing has yet to take place.

The transfer motion was filed Friday, the same day Gascón announced the policy changes, said Kathy Cady, an attorney representing the victims' families.

Gascón declined to discuss the case during a news conference Tuesday. Alex Bastian, one of the district attorney's special advisors, later confirmed the case will be the first brought before a committee created to review "extraordinary" cases in which a teenager is accused of an especially heinous act.

It remains unclear how the committee will work or whether prosecutors will need to seek unanimous approval from the panel to conduct an actual transfer hearing that could end with a juvenile case being moved to adult criminal court.

The prosecution in the killing of Brown and Atkins served as an early rallying cry for critics of Gascón's sweeping policy changes. Cady was one of many who demanded the district attorney's office conduct a "case-by-case" analysis of such cases.

In an interview last year, Gascón told The Times he struggled with the case but ultimately held fast to his policy, citing research on adolescents that shows brain development is not final until age 25.

“I talked to the family … and I have to tell you that’s a case where I lost sleep over, multiple times, because what the family has gone through and will continue to go through is tremendous," he said last year.

Atkins' father, Daniel Souvinette, expressed disgust with the district attorney's office when a prior transfer order was revoked in the case last year.

“A man was voted in, his policies came in and changed all the rules for all of the victims," he told a judge in the Inglewood courthouse. "When you lose your only child … a parent wouldn’t see this as justice.”

Cady said that although her clients were relieved that there's a chance their daughters' accused killer might spend more than four years in prison, she was still frustrated with the "roller coaster" Gascón put them on.

“They are completely exhausted because no family should have to try to beg for justice," she said. "Of course, the fact that their two daughters were murdered in and of itself is horrific. Gascon is certainly not responsible for that, but he is responsible for re-traumatizing them by … pulling the rug out from under them.”

The move comes as Gascón faces fierce backlash over his handling of a number of high-profile cases. The district attorney had been repeatedly pilloried for allowing a 26-year-old to plead guilty in juvenile court this year for the 2014 sexual assault of a 10-year-old girl because the defendant was 17 when the attack occurred.

At the same time, an effort to recall him from office has been gaining steam, raising $1.8 million, according to campaign finance reports. On Monday, the union representing rank-and-file prosecutors overwhelmingly voted to support the recall effort. Nearly 98% of the 557 prosecutors who cast ballots voted to endorse the recall, said Eric Siddal, the union's vice president.

“Over a year ago, Gascón began a massive social experiment by redirecting prosecutorial resources away from enforcing the law while simultaneously ignoring large portions of the penal code. The result is an emboldened criminal element that knows the D.A. will not hold criminals accountable," Siddal said in a statement. "This experiment needs to end."

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
 
Atkins' father, Daniel Souvinette,


Despite family's pleas, man accused of murdering 2 sisters to be judged in juvenile court​


By Christina Gonzalez

Published February 25, 2021

Updated 10:35AM

Crime and Public Safety

FOX 11

N DONALD CRUICKSHANK.png

Man accused of murdering two sisters will be judged in juvenile court despite pleas from family of victims​


LOS ANGELES - Under the guidance of Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón, a man who was a month shy of his eighteenth birthday will be judged in juvenile court. Donato Cruikshank is accused of shooting two sisters, ages 16 and 27, to death before setting their Westchester neighborhood apartment on fire.

"With all due respect, your honor...this is not justice," Daniel Souvinette said as he addressed a juvenile court judge in Inglewood on Feb. 24. Souvinette’s daughter, 27-year-old Uniek and her 16-year-old sister Sierra Brown, were shot multiple times in their West LA apartment that the killer also set on fire, according to investigators.

RELATED: Double murder suspect’s case being handled in juvenile court

Cruikshank, Sierra's boyfriend at the time, was arrested for the murders. On Wednesday, prosecutors, under the guidance of new LA DA Gascón requested that any consideration that he be tried as an adult be removed from consideration. Kathy Cady, a former deputy DA, who has been representing victim’s families as a Marsy’s law attorney, attempted to ask the judge to at least agree to a hearing to decide if the case should be heard in adult court. She also requested the DA to be removed from representing victims in this case.

But the judge refused, explaining that Gascón has a right to give guidance to his prosecutors in this manner, although he did have some issues with dismissing some of the special allegations that could be added to the charges. Some of the allegations include allegedly planning the murder and attempting to hide it by burning the apartment.

However, regardless of rulings, officials said Cruikshank will be tried in juvenile court. If convicted, he could face as little as seven years. He has already served two years while waiting for the case to go to court. Cady said she is representing several families in the same situation and that they are all devastated.

"How can Gascón disregard the individual merits of each case with a blanket decision?" she asked.

Daniel Souvinette adds that Gascon’s blanket guidelines are not justice.
 
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