Two teens held without bond for alleged murder of 33-year-old woman

BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) - Two teenagers accused of collaborating to murder a 33-year-old woman are being held until Monday, Dec. 5.

Today just the male suspect was in court and neither the defendant’s nor victim’s family wanted to comment today.

According to the East Baton Rouge District Attorney’s office, there’s been an increase in teens arrested for murder.

In 2021, there were 15. So far in 2022, there are 16.

“Obviously we have raised the age of a juvenile from 17 to 18 and I think that those attributes can explain why we have somewhat of an increase, not sure that explains all of it,” said district attorney Hillar Moore.

He says there is a problem with more teenagers getting their hands on weapons.

“Weapons that are semi-automatic weapons are really in the hands of a juvenile. Makes that somewhat small kid very large and menacing,” Moore said.

The DA says it is possible the teens in this case, will be tried as adults.

“We look at the evidence and the strength of the evidence. Look at the age of the juvenile. Look at what the conduct was like, and what the conflict was prior to that. How many times has he or she been in trouble, and assess not only the strength of our cases, what can we prove, but what is the best for public safety,” Moore said.

The 16-year-old girl is charged with principal to second-degree murder. For allegedly asking a 16-year-old boy for help killing Markeshia Stone.

The teen boy is charged with second-degree murder and juvenile possession of a firearm.

“When we talk to the victims, families that are killed by a juvenile, they’re not concerned about the juvenile age. They’re concerned that their loved one was killed, and I don’t care what the age was. It’s still my family member is dead. They’re not overly concerned about the effects of that on that juvenile,” Moore added.

RELATED: Teen girl allegedly solicits teen boy to kill relative, officials say

Click here to report a typo.

Copyright 2022 WAFB. All rights reserved.