CLAYTON — A girl accused of assault during an after-school fight near Hazelwood East High School will have a hearing next month to determine if she is charged as an adult.
The hearing, scheduled for May 10, was set during a conference Monday morning that marked the first step in determining if 15-year-old Maurnice DeClue will be certified as an adult in the fight that left 16-year-old Kaylee Gain hospitalized with a skull fracture and brain bleeding.
A judge will ultimately decide if her case is moved to adult court.
Maurnice’s lawyer, Greg Smith, said he plans to oppose certification. He would not discuss the details of what led to the fight, but he said Maurnice had been bullied at school and has had no previous involvement with the court system.
“We want that hearing to happen as quickly as possible,†he said.
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The March 8 fight happened just after school at Norgate and Claudine drives, about a quarter-mile from Hazelwood East. Video of the fight went viral online, garnering national media attention and sparking calls for Maurnice to be charged as an adult.
Kaylee was hospitalized and spent several days in ICU but had improved and was breathing on her own last week. Her family said she could not remember the details of the fight and urged juvenile court officials to seek adult charges.
Maurnice’s family identified her in a statement last week where they said she was a “helpful†and “diligent†honor roll student and was involved in several school activities.
Lawyers for Kaylee’s family responded that Maurnice’s intelligence and involvement in school activities meant the 15-year-old was “fully capable†of understanding what she had done.
And Smith on Monday claimed Kaylee’s lawyers were “reckless†when, in their response last week, they cited a fake social media post from an account claiming to be Maurnice. The post bragged about the fight, but a cursory investigation revealed that Maurnice could not have written it because she was already housed in juvenile detention.
“It’s pure garbage,†Smith said.
Arguments about the fight, meanwhile, have extended beyond the teens involved.
Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey launched an investigation into how the the district’s diversity, equity and inclusion programs “contributed†to the fight, which appeared to involve a Black student beating a white student.
School district officials fired back, arguing Bailey was leveraging an “obvious racial bias against majority-minority school districts†and spreading falsehoods.
Neither the school district nor local police have mentioned race as a factor in the fight.
In addition to Maurnice, authorities referred eight more teenagers — three 16-year-old boys, a 17-year-old boy, a 14-year-old girl, two 16-year-old girls and a 17-year-old girl — to family court in connection with the fight. Their names will not be released by authorities unless they are charged as adults.
Maurnice is set to appear in court on May 1 for another status conference ahead of the May 10 certification hearing date.
In the meantime, county juvenile officers are set to prepare a report about Maurnice’s school record, family information and mental state.