Louisville girl, 17, to be tried in adult court over fatal park stabbing

CANTON ‒ The case against a 17-year-old girl accused of stabbing and killing a 22-year-old man last month in a Louisville park will be decided in the adult criminal justice system, a judge ruled.

Stark County Family Court Judge David Nist ruled Thursday that the murder case against Marissa G. Smith, 17, of Louisville, should be transferred to Stark County Common Pleas Court, which handles adult felony criminal cases. He found that testimony Thursday by a Louisville Police detective constituted probable cause that Smith fatally stabbed Michael G. Morris, 22, of the Alliance area, in Wildwood Park on Sept. 13.

More:Two teens charged after man, 22, stabbed to death in Louisville park

Smith faces two counts of murder, two counts of felonious assault and one misdemeanor count of aggravated criminal trespass.

Second suspect, 15, to remain in juvenile court

The case of her co-defendant, a 15-year-old Louisville boy accused of giving her the knife, will remain in the juvenile court system. He faces two counts of murder, two counts of felonious assault and one count of aggravated criminal trespass, in addition to a misdemeanor count of carrying a concealed weapon.

The boy agreed to waive his right to a probable cause hearing. Nist ordered that a court-appointed psychologist evaluate the boy to determine if he can be rehabilitated within the juvenile system.

The Repository is not identifying the boy due to his age.

Once a juvenile court judge finds probable cause for murder in the case of a defendant who's 16 or 17 years old, state law requires the judge to transfer the case to the adult court system, said Melissa Day, the chief of the juvenile division for the Stark County Prosecutor's office. She said Smith's case now goes before a Stark County grand jury.

However, for younger defendants, whether to keep them in the juvenile system or send them to the adult court system is at the juvenile court judge's discretion. Often that decision takes place after an amenability study, which Day did not expect to be completed prior to mid-December.

Day said that both Smith and the 15-year-old boy will remain at the Multi-County Juvenile Attention Center as their cases move through the court systems.

Members of the families of the juvenile defendants and of Morris were present in the courtroom for the hearings.

Smith's attorneys are Aaron Phillips and Anthony Kaplanis of the Stark County Public Defender's Office.

The only witness in Smith's probable cause hearing was Louisville detective John Pilla.

Louisville police officer describes investigation into fatal stabbing at Wildwood park

He testified that he was called to Wildwood Park on 500 Stertzbach Avenue around 4 p.m. Sept. 13 in response to a stabbing. Morris had been found lying on grass in the park. After Pilla arrived, he and other officers heard that Morris had died at the hospital. Pilla testified that Morris died from a single stab wound to his left chest.

He interviewed three juveniles who said they had seen a girl with darker hair and braces stab the 22-year-old man they knew as "Devon." They said they could not identify her.

One of the juveniles mentioned another juvenile had been at the scene. Pilla said he went to that juvenile's home. At first the boy denied knowing anything. Then after additional questioning, he said he had seen what had happened.

Pilla said he then went to Smith's house. He said he got her to agree to speak with officers at the police station without her parents or an attorney present. According to Pilla, Smith said that a group of boys had been beating up the 15-year-old boy who later gave her the knife. She said she was trying to use the knife to scare the boys away and get them to leave, he said.

Pilla asked her if she stabbed Morris.

"She said she could of. She didn't remember," Pilla testified. He added that the knife was found at the scene.

In a subsequent interview that Pilla didn't attend, he testified that Smith told his fellow officers that Morris put his hands up or pushed her, lunged at her and then he got stabbed.

Pilla said the disagreement seemed to stem from whether Smith had been spat on by the boys.

PIlla testified that the interviews with all the witnesses were video recorded with police officers' body cameras plus a camera in the interview room. And that a surveillance camera captured part of the confrontation between the kids in the park and it showed Smith holding the knife out with a 4-to-5-inch blade that popped forward if a button was pressed. The footage showed the 15-year-old boy running behind her. But the camera did not capture the actual stabbing. And it did not capture audio of the confrontation.

Kaplanis declined to comment.

The boy's attorney, Jeff Jakmides, requested the judge release the 15-year-old boy and confine him under house arrest. Jakmides argued that the boy had caused no trouble while in custody and had no prior criminal record. But the judge decided to keep him at Multi-County.

In a later interview, Jakmides said that he anticipates that the case against his client will remain in the juvenile court system because the boy has no prior criminal convictions. He indicated that he would argue that Smith and his client acted in self defense.

“I have confidence in the criminal justice system of Stark County," said Jakmides. “We will not plead guilty or true, period, to the charges as they are presently situated.”

Reach Robert at robert.wang@cantonrep.com. Twitter: @rwangREP.

This article originally appeared on The Repository: Marissa Smith, 17, to be tried in adult court over Louisville stabbing