The teenager stabbed Kayla Green during a huge brawl after a parade in Mount Vernon, New York State, USA, marking the state championship won by the high school boys’ basketball team.
A teenager will spend up to nine years in prison after she fatally stabbed a 16-year-old cheerleader at a school party.
The 15-year-old girl, who has not been named, was sentenced Tuesday to three to nine years in prison by a judge after pleading guilty to first-degree manslaughter in December, the Westchester County District Attorney’s Office said.
The teenager stabbed Kayla Green during a huge brawl after a parade in Mount Vernon, New York State, USA, marking the state championship won by the high school boys’ basketball team.
The incident, which took place in Westchester last April, stemmed from a cheerleading rivalry.
Ms Green was a sophomore and the captain of her school’s junior varsity cheerleading squad.
Her attacker was part of an independent glee club, of which Green was a past member.
Ms Green was slashed in the stomach and tragically pronounced dead after she was taken to hospital, prosecutors said.
In court Tuesday, Judge Susan Cacace explained the motive, which she described as a “longstanding rivalry” between two cheer squads in the city of Mount Vernon.
The defendant apologized in court before her sentence was determined, claiming she was “regretful” that her actions took away a big sister and daughter and admitting she had made “bad choices”.
Local news outlet Lohud reported that Ms. Green’s relatives believed that the defendant’s sentence and apology were insufficient and argued that she would be out of prison in a short time.
“Her killer can get out in three years to live his life, to have a family, to have a career. My daughter will never see that,” said the victim’s mother Laverne Gordon.
The brawl broke out shortly after the celebration to recognize the basketball team’s 12th state title.
Mimi Rocah, Prosecutor, said the fatal stabbing had “left a community devastated”.
“As the family and community of Mount Vernon remain in mourning, I want to reiterate my commitment to working with our key community partners for meaningful violence prevention and intervention, especially for our youth,” she said,
The maximum sentence the defendant could have received was 3 to 10 years – as a juvenile offender in New York – the district attorney’s office noted.
She would serve her time in a juvenile detention center until she was 18, when she was taken into custody by the state’s Department of Corrections.
