15-year-old sentenced to 3-9 years in prison in death of 16-year-old Mount Vernon cheerleader
MOUNT VERNON, New York (WABC) -- A 15-year-old girl who pled guilty to killing a 16-year-old cheerleader in Mount Vernon was sentenced on Tuesday.
The Westchester County district attorney announced that the 15-year-old, who is not being identified due to her age, was sentenced to three to nine years in state prison after pleading guilty to first degree manslaughter for the April 2022 fatal stabbing of 16-year-old Kayla Green.
"A teenage defendant senselessly took the life of Kayla Green, and in doing so, left a community devastated," Westchester County District Attorney Miriam Rocah said.
Green's loved ones left the courthouse Tuesday seeing the criminal justice system play out, but didn't feel a sense of justice.
"Her killer gets to get out in three years to live her life, to have family, to have a career. My daughter will never see that," Green's mother Laverne Gordon said.
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Green was the captain of the cheer squad and had been celebrating the varsity basketball team's championship victory in a citywide parade on April 8 when she was stabbed just a couple blocks away from City Hall.
The stabbing was captured on cell phone video and a picture of the defendant with a knife was taken hours earlier in her bedroom and was posted on social media.
The family blasted the Mount Vernon school system as well.
"They were fully aware of what this woman, this young lady, was doing inside of that school and it was a danger to every young person who was in that school and they did nothing," said Lauren Raysor, the family's attorney.
Green was also an aspiring doctor. She was remembered by friends and loved ones as a happy girl who was always smiling.
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