Kaylee Gain attack suspect won’t be tried as adult after evidence of bullying emerged, judge rules
The 15-year-old girl accused of viciously beating classmate Kaylee Gain into a coma will not be charged as an adult, a St. Louis judge ruled on Wednesday.
The case will remain in juvenile court after the judge reviewed the unnamed suspect’s school history and met with the girl and her family several times since the brutal March fight outside Hazelwood East High School.
Gain, 16, was left severely injured in a fight on March 8.
Disturbing video showed her attacker get on top of the teen and repeatedly bash her head into the pavement.
She awoke from a coma several days later, but still has a long road to recovery, her family has said.
The teen’s defense attorney, Greg Smith, said in court Wednesday that Gain was previously suspended from school for a fight and struck the 15-year-old first.
Gain’s parents were present in the courtroom.
Smith argued that his client had a stable home life, performed well in school and had behaved well while locked up in a juvenile detention center.
Gain is back home after spending months in the hospital after the brawl.
She’s doing well but still suffers from short-term memory loss, attends speech and physical therapy several days per week and will have surgery to reattach a piece of her skull.
She still deals with “trauma, fear and pain that have arisen from this incident,” Gain’s family attorney Bryan Kaemmerer said in an update on her condition earlier this month.
Karmmerer said Gain’s family would “respect” the judge’s decision regarding trying the 15-year-old as a juvenile or adult.
The suspect’s family claimed that the juvenile suspect had been acting in self-defense and that they received numerous racial threats after the incident.
