More proof has surfaced that a girl who was seen on a viral video slamming another teenager’s head into a pavement near a Missouri school was acting in self-defense.
According to a juvenile officer who testified in the St. Louis Family Court on Friday, Maurnice DeClue was responding to being punched first by Kaylee Gain, who was known to be a serial fighter. The officer who is overseeing Maurnice’s case serves much like prosecutors in the adult system, according to KDSK.
The testimony came as attorneys tried to persuade a judge to release the 15-year-old to her family from a juvenile facility, where she had been since March after being charged with felony assault.
The viral fight on March 8 had left the Gain with severe injuries, including a brain bleed, resulting in part of the teen’s skull being removed.
The brutal beating that shocked many after it was captured on video depicted Maurnice as a violent aggressor who heartlessly brutalized Gain, 16, leading her family to campaign for the 15-year-old to be tried as an adult for the alleged attack.
However, Maurnice’s family, though regretful that the fight ended with Gain being hospitalized, argued that the behavior was abnormal for Maurnice, who has good grades and no history of disciplinary issues.
“My family, my church, we all prayed for KG [Kaylee Gain],” Consuella DeClue said in court Friday, according to Riverfront Times. “I think she was just defending herself, I don’t think she had any intent or thought this would happen to KG and we are very sorry.”
Multiple teachers also testified about Maurnice’s academic success and good behavior in court on Friday. The 15-year-old skipped the seventh grade and was on the honor roll, according to those who took the stand.
The juvenile officer, who reviewed school records, also pointed out that Gain had been suspended the day before the brawl for fighting another girl. Greg Smith, an attorney for the DeClue family, previously told local outlets that due to the suspension, Gain was not supposed to be near school grounds that day and returned to the area to settle a score that stemmed from the previous fight with one of Maurnice’s friends.
Clinton Gain, Kaylee’s father, previously told the New York Post that he found text messages showing that the two girls had agreed to the fight that day. He also admitted that his daughter was constantly in trouble for physical altercations with other students.
Members of Kaylee’s family seemed to backtrack in an impact statement to the court on Friday after months of demonizing Maurnice.
“While our daughter will, in all likelihood, need lifelong medical care and therapy to overcome the injuries and trauma that were inflicted on her, we pray that the juvenile shows remorse and takes accountability for her actions so that no one else’s lives are so irreversibly changed in the future,” Kaylee Gain’s stepmother in a statement which also outlined the teen’s medical treatment after the fight, according to First Alert 4.
“A terrible choice was made by two teenage girls to solve their issues through violence. This caused one of them to go too far with their bare hands and a concrete road,” she continued.
She also told the court that Kaylee Gain, who is white, had to learn to walk again and is still experiencing memory loss. The 16-year-old is wearing a helmet to protect her skull and will have to undergo other surgeries to rectify the damage from the fight.
St. Louis County Circuit Court Judge Jason Dodson ruled against the motion despite the number of witnesses speaking highly of the teen’s character. However, Dodson said his decision was made to safeguard Maurnice, a Black girl, who has reportedly received several death threats since the video went viral.
After revelations about Kaylee Gain’s troubled past came to light, it was coupled in mainstream media with details of the alleged bully’s rocky family life with parents who had substance abuse problems. One of two online fundraisers launched by Gain’s family members has raised more than $420,000, while the DeClue’s family GoFundMe page was taken down after being flagged by angry online video viewers who had already convicted the teen.
While the juvenile officer, who spoke to Maurice every day since she arrived at the facility, recommended that she continue to be tried as a juvenile and not charged as an adult, Dodson will make a decision at a later date.
School officials have also received derogatory messages, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports.
“Employees answering phones are called the ‘n’ word or ‘n-lover,’” according to a complaint. “Bomb threats have been made to individual employees and at schools, to which law enforcement have had to respond.”
