The youngest of the five teens charged in connection with the fatal 2023 attack of a 64-year-old man in Washington, D.C., has been sentenced to stay in a detention facility for young people this week.
According to WUSA9, Superior Court Judge Kendra Briggs sentenced the 13-year-old on Tuesday with an order for the teen, who was 12 years old at the time of the attack, to be detained until she turns 20.
The sentence is for her role in the brutal beating of Reggie Brown, who officials identified as disabled.
Brown’s family was present at the Dec. 17 sentencing, where a voicemail of the teen bragging about the beating was played out loud. Briggs said the teen talked about the beating “as if it was like making a sandwich.”One of Brown’s sisters left the sentencing early due to the disturbing content.
“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,” the unidentified woman said. “It just hurt my heart…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.”
The teen was part of the group of girls who chased Brown down a Washington, D.C., alley on October 17, 2023, at approximately 12:45 a.m. After catching up with Brown, who attempted to climb a gate and escape, the teens kicked, taunted and beat him to death.
Police responded to a call to find Brown “with trauma consistent with an assault.” Brown died at the scene. The unnamed girls were charged as juveniles.
The oldest girl in the group, 15, was sentenced to three years in prison, while two others, 12 and 13 at the time, were found guilty of “second-degree murder, assault with a dangerous weapon and conspiracy to commit assault.”
The attack was captured on video, and one of the teens was found guilty of tampering with physical evidence. The attorney for the fifth girl, who was 13 at the time of the incident, requested more time to prepare their case.
According to the 15-year-old suspect, the girls were “bored.”
Brown’s family wants justice as police continue to search for the unidentified man who allegedly initiated the attack and granted the girls permission to help him beat up Brown.
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