One of four teenagers arrested in connection to carjackings in which women were tricked into giving their assailants a ride saw the charges against her transferred to juvenile court after an appeal from her former math teacher.
Syann Willis "can be saved," Kaylie Felty, an eighth-grade math teacher at Hamilton Learning Academy in Little Rock, told Pulaski County Circuit Judge Barry Sims.
The 16-year-old single mother was a great student but also a typical "boy-crazy" teenage girl, Felty testified in a hearing to decide whether Willis, who turns 17 in a month, should be tried as an adult on aggravated robbery and simple robbery charges.
Felty said Willis is immature and so easily influenced by who she thinks is "cool" that she likely fell under the sway of one of the older defendants, 18-year-old Ryeisha Gaines, whom police believe was the leader of the group of teens.
The teen's mother, Tamatrice Willis, also pleaded with the judge to allow juvenile authorities jurisdiction for the second- oldest of her five children. She said her daughter is obedient and respectful when they're together, but she acknowledged her daughter has not attended school like she should and that she did not know where the girl was at the time of the robberies.
Syann Willis has been in trouble for truancy but has no juvenile convictions, her attorney, Tom Devine, told the judge. He urged the judge not to be swayed by the violent nature of the crimes but consider that Willis never had been offered an opportunity in the juvenile system.
According to police testimony Thursday, Willis admitted to detectives that she participated in three robberies, including one in which she pulled an elderly woman out of her car and into the street.
In a second robbery, one in which a pedestrian was struck by a stolen car, Willis admitted her role and identified herself and two accomplices in cellphone photos taken by a bystander.
Sims said he'd give the girl a chance with the rehabilitative programs in the juvenile justice system.
He urged her to take advantage of the opportunity to turn her life around and be a better example for her daughter. The judge pointed out that the aggravated robbery count was one of the most serious criminal charges that prosecutors can bring.
"I want you to win. I want you to go out and make something of yourself," Sims told the tearful girl. "If they [juvenile authorities] can help you, more power to you. But if they can't, I'm sure I'll see you again."
Sims ordered Willis, who did not testify, prosecuted under the extended juvenile jurisdiction authorities, which leaves the possibility that she could face the charges in adult court if she's not rehabilitated by age 21.
Detective Grant Humphries with the Little Rock Police Department outlined the case against the defendants at Thursday's hearing.
The first victim was 72-year-old Cora Shaw, who was at the Edwards Food Giant on South Main Street on Aug. 24 and agreed to give two girls a ride who had helped her put her groceries in the car. They claimed they needed a lift because their mother was sick, the detective said.
They gave the woman directions to a State Street address, but Gaines, who was in the front seat, shifted the car into park and hit Shaw. Willis, who was in the back seat, dragged the woman into the street before they took her car, the detective said.
Later that same day, 29-year-old Dan Cheng was approached by three young women who asked for her help, the detective said. Cheng, whose English is limited, thought they seemed nice and wanted to help them, Humphries told the judge.
At the intersection of University Avenue and 19th Street, one of them shifted the car into park as Cheng was driving and punched her before another pepper-sprayed Cheng and pulled her out of the car, the detective said. They fled in Cheng's stolen car but crashed after striking a pedestrian, Cenita Wilford.
Three days later, Wanda Martin, 65, was robbed of her 2014 Toyota Corolla by a young woman who approached her at a Roosevelt Road grocery store and helped Martin load her groceries, the detective said. The young woman said she needed a ride because of a sick mother. When Martin agreed to take her, two other teenagers also got into the car, Humphries testified.
One of them, Whitley Ousley, 17, put something sharp against her side, Martin told police, and told her to drive. Ousley eventually punched Martin and kicked her out of the car while the other two teenagers threw Martin's dog out, the detective said. He said Ousley admitted hitting the woman but said she did it only because she was bullied into it by another of the teenagers.
The judge denied Ousley's petition to be tried in juvenile court, saying he did not think she could be reformed after spending almost four years in the juvenile justice system. She is charged with aggravated robbery, theft and misdemeanor battery.
Ousley has only misdemeanor juvenile convictions for disorderly conduct and terroristic threatening, according to testimony at Thursday's hearing, but during that time she had been sent to juvenile detention 11 times for leaving home and fighting in school.
She also had been in three residential treatment programs for behavioral problems and spent seven months incarcerated by the state Division of Youth Services. She was released from state custody June 30, two months before the carjackings, according to testimony.
Diagnosed with bipolar disorder, the girl did not regularly take her medication, and her mother, Sandra Ousley, told the judge she could not make her daughter obey her rules at home or take her medication.
Metro on 12/20/2014