Two Fifth-graders Murder Trial Set For Alleged Washington Murder-Rape Plot

The two fifth-graders murder trial in Washington State is set and will stand trial as juveniles. The two boys were accused of a foiled plot to rape and kill a girl and kill or harm six other classmates, according to a prosecutor Friday, as reported by Reuters.

Stevens County Prosecutor Tim Rasmussen said that the boys, 11 and 10, have pleaded not guilty during an arraignment on Friday over the alleged murder-rape plot. The boys also targeted other children in Colville, Washington, about 215 miles east of Seattle.

According to courtroom documents, one of the boys wanted the girl killed because “she’s rude and always made fun of me and my friends.”

Rasmussen told Reuters that, “There are very few prosecutions of a crime of this magnitude with boys of this age.”

Stevens County Superior Court Judge Allen Nielson decided during the hearing that that the boys had the capacity to understand right and wrong, according to Rasmussen.

Washington state laws indicate that children ages 8 to 12 are presumed to be mentally incapable of committing a crime. The state’s juvenile court is typically reserved for defendants between the ages of 12 and 18.

One of the suspects, the 10 year-old-boy, was charged with conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, juvenile firearm possession and witness tampering, according to Rasmussen.

The younger boy had taken a gun that originally belonged to his grandfather from his older brother’s room, as documented in the declaration of probable cause.

Rasmussen said that the other suspect, the 11-year-old boy was charged with conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, possession of dangerous weapon, a knife, at school and tampering with a witness.

The boys were planning to lure the girl away from school in Colville, a town of 4,600 people in eastern Washington, as written in court documents.

The suspects’ teacher found a list of six more classmates that are targeted, according to the prosecutor.

The fifth-graders boarded a school bus on February 7, bringing a knife, a semi-automatic pistol and ammunition in their backpack. They were on their way to Fort Colville Elementary School.

A fourth-grader on the bus saw the knife the suspects brought and informed a teacher’s aide, prosecutors said. One of the suspects later said he would kill the student who told school officials about the weapon he was carrying.

If the two boys are convicted, each could be sentenced to 103 to 127 weeks unless a judge finds “manifest injustice” and demands a longer sentence, Rasmussen said.

Both boys were expelled from the school district indefinitely.

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world news
Crime
murder
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