In tumultuous courtoom scene, Kamyjah Bias sentenced for fatal stabbing of Pierre V. Scott

In a tumultuous courtroom scene Wednesday, the 16-year-old convicted in the November 17, 2021, fatal stabbing of Lanphier High School senior Pierre V. Scott Jr. outside of the school was sentenced to 43 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections.

The sentence for Kamyjah A. Bias included 30 years for first-degree murder which she will have to serve at 100%. Bias will be eligible for parole after 20 years.

While Cyhila Brookens, Scott's mother, was giving a victim impact statement, Bias angrily stood up, pounded the defense table and knocked over a podium. Some witnesses said Bias appeared to try to make her way to the witness stand before she was subdued by court authorities.

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Bias and Brookens were cleared from the courtroom, as were several spectators. After a 10-minute recess, Bias returned in handcuffs and shackles.

Sangamon County sheriff's deputies stood guard when the proceeding resumed, including several positioned in the well of the court. About half a dozen Springfield Police officers who were attending the sentencing were moved from the gallery to the well.

Sangamon County Chief Circuit Judge Ryan Cadagin called Bias' behavior "outrageous." Cadagin warned Bias if there was another outburst that she would be taken to a more secure courtroom and placed in a glass enclosure for the proceeding.

Spectators packing the courtroom, many family members and friends of both the defendant and the two victims, were warned about not recording or disrupting the proceedings.

At least two people were later escorted from the gallery by a sheriff's deputy.

Bias also was given 10 years for the attempted murder of Daquan R. Dunn, another Lanphier student, who was stabbed in the chest just after Scott was fatally stabbed.

Bias was handed three years for unlawful use of a weapon.

The sentence amounts to 40 years because Bias will serve attempted murder sentence at 85% and the unlawful use of a weapon sentence at 50%. The sentences will run consecutively.

At the time of the incident, Bias was a 15-year old student at Douglas-PREP, though she attended classes in the afternoon at Lanphier.

The case was initially filed in juvenile court because of Bias' age, but Sangamon County state's attorney Dan Wright petitioned to transfer the charges to adult criminal court. That petition was granted on April 12, 2022.

Bias was convicted during a two-day bench trial in February.

Bias could have been sentenced up to 90 years in prison, but the State would have had to have met certain legal criteria.

At trial, attorney Gregory Sronce argued that Bias acted in self-defense and that there was "objective evidence" that Scott, Dunn and others intended to confront her after school.

Bias testified that she didn't know either Scott or Dunn but admitted that her younger brother attended Washington Middle School with Scott's younger brother and the two "had a beef with each other."

At the time, first assistant state's attorney Derek Dion labelled Bias' trial testimony "flatly incredible and patently self-serving," adding that Scott didn't pose a threat to Bias, nor did he have a weapon on him.

Kendra Hansel, the juvenile division/child protection division chief for the state's attorney's office, said videos from Lanphier and First Student bus company played at the trial "were the best sources of evidence" against Bias.

Scott, who had just turned 18, was set to graduate and had designs on being a bricklayer. School District 186 officials recognized Scott and his family at Lanphier's graduation ceremony in 2022.

At Wednesday's sentencing, Dion reminded the court of Bias' "maliciousness" towards Scott's family, specifically in a Snapchat video where Bias mocked Scott's uncle who had recently died of COVID-19. Bias testified that she didn't know the man was Scott's uncle.

Dion said Bias lacked remorse, proclaiming after stabbing Scott, "I hope he dies."

Dion urged the court to craft "a just sentence, a sentence that tells every child, every family and every school in our community that we hear you. School violence will not be tolerated and those who want to bring a knife or a gun school to cause murder and mayhem in a place where students and staff should feel safe will face the harshest penalties of the law because our society has had enough."

In an emotional statement, Brookens urged Cadagin to give Bias the maximum sentence "because you took all that from me."

Facing the media afterwards, Brookens, standing next to Dunn's mother, Krishawna Acres, said justice was served.

"It's been a long time coming," Brookens said.

On Wednesday, Sronce told the court that a transfer court evaluation done on Bias showed she had "significant cognitive disabilities" and "perhaps reads and writes at a first-grade level."

"We're not dealing with a typical 15-year-old," said Sronce, referring to Bias' age at the time of the evaluation.

Sronce added that Bias had never been in front of any court as a juvenile until the murder proceedings.

In asking for the minimum sentence, Sronce pointed out the U.S. Supreme Court has opined that a juvenile "beyond rehabilitation is extremely rare. The Illinois Supreme Court also recognizes that."

Later, a contrite Bias apologized to the families.

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"If I could go back in time, I would take all this back," Bias said. "I didn't mean for this to happen.

"When I pray for me, I pray for you, too. I hope maybe one day you will forgive me, but you don't have to (because) I know it's hard."

"There is no punishment that the court could impose that would return Pierre Scott to his family or take away the emotional and physical trauma suffered by the other child victim in this case," Wright said afterwards. "We asked for the maximum sentence allowed by law under these circumstances and that was the sentence that was imposed.

"This was an incident that sent shockwaves throughout our community, not just with the Lanphier High School family and students and staff across District 186 but throughout our entire community. The acts of this defendant turned the school into a crime scene and created witnesses from children and staff and is something that will not be tolerated in our community.

"I think the trial in this case and the sentencing we saw today demonstrated that."

Contact Steven Spearie: 217-622-1788, sspearie@sj-r.com, twitter.com/@StevenSpearie.

This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: Kamyjah A. Bias was sentenced in court Wednesday for the killing of a Lanphier student