John Jefferson
Inset: Reggie Brown (Brown family). Background: The alley where he was allegedly beaten to death by five teen girls (WJLA).
The last of the five young girls found guilty of kicking and stomping a disabled stranger to death in Washington, D.C., because they “were bored” before taking selfies with the battered 64-year-old got hit with the harshest punishment possible on Monday — “juvenile life,” according to the victim’s family and prosecutors.
That means she’ll be released once she turns 21.
“That’s all that they can give her,” Reggie Brown’s sister, Nasia Israel, told local CBS affiliate WUSA after the 14-year-old was ordered to serve a seven-year sentence in a restricted youth detention facility for Brown’s 2023 death after she pleaded guilty. “They can only stay incarcerated until they’re 21.”
Judge Kendra Briggs, who oversaw the teens’ cases, described the girl as delivering “some of the most vicious blows” to Brown’s head during the assault on him, WUSA reports. Five girls, ranging in ages from 12 to 15, took part in the attack after chasing Brown down in an alley.
Asked why they set upon him, one of the teens reportedly told cops: “Because we were bored.” Another individual, described as an adult male, allegedly took part as well but hasn’t been caught or charged.
“A close has come to this criminal case,” Briggs said Monday. “But there is no closure for the families involved.”
Two of the teens who set upon Brown pleaded guilty last year and were sentenced to three years in prison for assault with a dangerous weapon, including the oldest of the group, who was 15 at the time and wound up offering testimony against two of the others.
Another 13-year-old got hit with the maximum sentence allowed for a minor in Washington on Dec. 4 after being convicted of second-degree murder, with Briggs ordering her to remain under a “restrictive commitment” in a Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services facility until she, too, is 21.
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A fourth teen, who was 12 at the time of Brown’s death, was sentenced on Dec. 17 and given the same fate, but she’ll be getting out a year earlier, per WUSA. The teen pleaded guilty to a charge of assault and was ordered to remain detained until she turns 20. She was called out at her sentencing by Briggs for bragging and talking about Brown’s murder “as if it was like making a sandwich.” Brown’s family was in court as prosecutors played a voicemail recording of the girl boasting about the beating.
“After listening to the voicemail of all the things she was saying about my brother and the way she took the belt and was … I couldn’t, I couldn’t listen anymore,” one of Brown’s sisters, who was not identified, told WUSA after leaving the sentencing early. “It just hurt my heart,” the woman said. “For a 13-year-old girl to be able to celebrate like that, there’s no way I could sit in there and listen to that. I had to get up and leave.”
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