Investigating a youth violence crisis and what happens when kids kill
Before high school graduation, far too many teens in Hamilton County are graduating from juvenile to adult court. They are accused of violent crimes and, once bound over to adult court, face prison time if convicted.
The increasing numbers are evidence of a growing youth violence problem in greater Cincinnati.
"You can just be there for your kids and give your kids good advice, but you can't make decisions for them. You can't make decisions for their friends," said an Evanston mom, Jessica Martin.
The last time Martin hugged her son, Jaden Moermond, he was 16. He is sentenced to nearly that amount of time in an Ohio prison.
"I never in a million years thought 15 years," Martin said.
On June 8, 2021, Moermond and his friend Christopher Solomon, 18, drove a stolen car to a gas station in Spring Grove Village. Solomon saw a running Black Nissan Sentra sitting in the parking lot. He climbed inside of it just seconds before the driver returned.
Dash camera video shows Solomon pull out a handgun and shoot through the car window at the victim. Solomon gets out of the vehicle and continues shooting as the robbery victim tries to run away.
Robbie Smythe, 31, was critically hurt in the shooting.
Martin will never forget that morning.
"He flipped on my lights in my bedroom, and he said, 'Mom, you gotta get up.' And he said, 'Striker just shot somebody,'" Martin said.
"So I kept going on the news app and refreshing it," she said before getting emotional.
Eventually, she saw the story updated to a homicide investigation. She was devastated for the victim, his family and her son.
"When he pulled out of BP, he made a right. Chris seen him, and Chris immediately ran to the car and just jumped in," she said. "Jaden's attorney always told me that if he made that left, the 15 years would have never happened."
Both Moermond and Solomon were charged with murder. Moermond took a plea deal and was sentenced to 15 years. Solomon also agreed to a plea deal and was sentenced to 25 years.
"I think I spend, probably, it feels like half my day in juvenile court explaining to kids what complicity means, what aiding and abetting means," said defense attorney Jay Clark. "Juveniles are not small adults, and you can't treat them like small adults."
Clark said most of the juveniles he represents feel unsafe in their own neighborhoods, have dealt with layers of trauma, and many are trying to fit in.
Those factors, combined with educational barriers, neighborhood disinvestment, poverty and other external factors, can contribute to devastating outcomes.
WLWT obtained a video of four teens holding and pointing guns in a video. The teens are 14, 15, 16 and 17.
Police said the guns they are holding are real and were used a short time later in a drive-by shooting.
Detectives said the group shot into a crowded parking lot in Avondale, killing a 16-year-old boy. All four are now charged with murder as adults.
Two of them, Denerick Williams and Raeshawn Covington, escaped from Hillcrest Academy the day before the shooting. Both have pleaded guilty in the 2021 homicide and are serving 18 years in prison.
"Anybody that realizes what's going on with our youth should be very concerned. They are becoming the predators in violence. They are becoming the victims in violence," said Cincinnati police Chief Terri Theetge.
WLWT investigative reporter Jatara McGee reviewed more than five years of juvenile court cases, every case where a juvenile was charged with murder, manslaughter, reckless or vehicular homicide.
There were five youths charged with those crimes in 2017. It peaked in 2021 with 17 youths charged.
The suspects in deadly shootings and stabbings are as young as 13. In deadly assaults and car crashes, the suspects are as young as 12.
"I think in a lot of respects we've seen a lot of leniency in juvenile court," said Hamilton County Prosecutor Melissa Powers.
The former juvenile court judge preaches a tough-on-crime approach, even for youth.
"They are hardened. They're angry. That's what we're dealing with. They're used to violence. They've seen it. They've known somebody shot," she said, emphasizing the need to help victim's families get justice.
Our investigation found since 2017, 60 percent of juveniles charged in homicides are bound over and prosecuted in adult court.
Of the juveniles charged in homicides, their sentences, if convicted, range from a few years in a juvenile treatment program to a 15-year-old serving 27 to life.
"There's the pressure to forget that they're kids," said Hamilton County Administrative Judge Kari Bloom.
She has served in the role for less than a year, taking over after Powers moved to the prosecutor's office.
Bloom said the court is required to try to rehabilitate teens, even violent ones.
"A child being murdered is never fair, no matter what, no matter by who, no matter what the outcome is," Bloom said. "So we are never going to achieve the ultimate balance of fairness."
Bloom said social media is "100 percent" making the area's youth violence problem worse.
"I can say that without a doubt," she said. "Social media, I don't think, is even just contributing but is responsible for a portion of the youth violence."
To watch Part 2 of this investigation, click here.