A Baltimore judge refused to accept a plea agreement Thursday that would have allowed the 17-year-old defendant, charged with murdering her grandmother, to transfer into the juvenile justice system.
After taking a day to consider it, Circuit Judge Timothy J. Doory denied the state-proffered plea deal, apparently unable to countenance what he called the "judge shopping" aspect of the carefully crafted plan. It essentially would have overturned another judge's ruling in March that Jabreria Handy must be tried as an adult, in part because of a history of "behavioral problems" that include nine high school suspensions, throwing a textbook and threatening a teacher's cats.
"You're putting me in a position to sit in reconsideration [of another judge], and I do not like that aspect of it at all," Doory said Wednesday during a conference with attorneys held quietly at his bench (The Baltimore Sun reviewed a recording of the conversation).
"I wouldn't want that aspect being done to my [decisions] by one of my compatriots of equal power," Doory said.
The case highlights the luck of the draw when it comes to the justice system. Another judge might never have ordered Handy tried as an adult. And another system - the juvenile system - might have given her access to services not available to grown-ups, specifically an out-of-state residential anger-management program that has helped other teens, including a girl convicted last year of beating a woman on a city bus.
That was the hope of prosecutors Jennifer Rallo and Janet Hankin, who said they developed the agreement as "a second bite at the apple." It involved Handy, charged with second-degree murder, pleading guilty to a lesser manslaughter charge in Circuit Court and then transferring to juvenile court for sentencing.
"On balance, we thought this was the fairest thing all around to keep her from snapping again," one of the prosecutors told the judge, according to the recording.
"It's a very unique case," added Assistant Public Defender Amy Stone. "It has some very sensitive circumstances."
When Handy was still a little girl, she was placed with her grandparents through "Child in Need of Assistance" proceedings. Records explaining the move were not available, but such cases are usually initiated because of guardian neglect or abuse.
Family members have said she was close to her grandmother, Eunice Taylor, and quickly resolved squabbles as they flared. But last year, when Handy was 16 and a senior at Samuel L. Banks High School, a fight in October ended in violence.
