Justice and childhood 

A day after a 10-year-old boy was arrested for allegedly shooting and killing an infant girl in the city’s Baden neighborhood, juvenile authorities filed a petition alleging first-degree murder.

The case raises questions about how Missouri’s legal system handles very young children accused of its most serious crimes.

It also comes as Missouri’s juvenile justice system continues to confront longstanding racial disparities affecting Black children. According to the Missouri Department of Public Safety’s 2023 Racial and Ethnic Disparities Action Plan, Black youth are referred to juvenile offices at a rate 2.32 times higher than White youth, are less likely to have their cases diverted from the formal court process and are certified to stand trial as adults at significantly higher rates. Reducing those disparities is one of the system’s stated priorities.

Dr. Kenya Brumfield-Young, a criminal justice associate professor at Saint Louis University, noted how quickly the 10-year-old was charged before a thorough psychological examination was conducted.

“In Missouri, first-degree murder requires that a person knowingly caused the death of another person after deliberation,” Brumfield-Young explained, adding, “with a 10-year-old, the question of intent is much deeper.

“A child may understand that something is ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ in a basic way and may even understand that death means someone is not coming back,” she continued. “But that is not the same as understanding the totality of the circumstances, the long-term consequences of the act, or the meaning of being processed through court on a homicide allegation.”

According to court documents, the 10-year-old shot 7-month-old Kiyomi Parker in the head June 26 inside a home in the 8400 block of North Broadway. She later died at a hospital. A 7-year-old also was inside the home.

The infant’s father, Ca’Marion Pawnell, 19, of East St. Louis, is charged with second-degree felony murder, first-degree child endangerment resulting in death and two additional child endangerment counts.

According to the probable cause statement, the handgun had been stored beneath a mattress. The 10-year-old told investigators he knew where it was and had handled it before the shooting. Pawnell admitted the gun belonged to him and that he stored it beneath the mattress.

Under Missouri law, children generally must be at least 12 before a judge can consider transferring them to adult court on serious felony charges. Because the boy in this case is 10, he would likely face the first-degree murder allegation in juvenile court.

That approach reflects Missouri’s juvenile justice philosophy. The St. Louis Family Court says its system emphasizes accountability alongside rehabilitation, family engagement and repairing harm rather than punishment alone. Court officials also acknowledge racial and ethnic disparities as an ongoing challenge and say reducing those disparities remains a priority.

In April, lawmakers passed and Gov. Mike Kehoe signed Senate Bill 888, a wide-ranging criminal justice measure that critics say makes it easier to try some juveniles as adults.

The new law allows prosecutors to seek hearings to transfer older juveniles to adult court, an option critics say gives prosecutors greater influence over those decisions.

House Democrats say that because prosecutors are elected officials, the law could politicize criminal cases and lead to more minors being tried as adults.

“Sometimes prosecutors, they get power hungry,” said Rep. David Tyson-Smith, D-Columbia. “They get in office and they want convictions,” Tyson-Smith said, adding that prosecutors are supposed to “seek justice, not convictions” of minors.

Rep. Michael Johnson, a Kansas City Democrat and chair of the Missouri Legislative Black Caucus, denounced the legislation.

“Public safety and accountability must always be priorities, but we cannot ignore the long-term consequences of policies that criminalize our youth instead of investing in their potential,” Johnson wrote.

In defense of the bill, Rep. Brad Christ, R-St. Louis County, described some juveniles as “very hardened criminals” who have taken advantage of what he called the state’s “catch-and-release process” for minors.

Brumfield-Young unequivocally does not support charging juveniles as adults.

“That does not mean there should be no accountability, and it does not minimize the seriousness of the harm,” she said. “It means that accountability for children and adolescents should happen in a system designed around the cognitive, emotional and social development of young people.

“This is especially important when we are talking about a 10-year-old. A child that young is still very early in the developmental process, including the development of the capacities we expect adults to use when making serious decisions.”

Skyla Pawnell, who identified herself as Ca’Marion Pawnell’s cousin on Facebook, has started a Change.org petition asking “the legal system to exercise compassion and justice” for her cousin. The petition acknowledges that “leaving a loaded firearm accessible was certainly a mistake,” but argues the legal system has placed “the full weight” of the tragedy on Pawnell while overlooking what it describes as the “complex circumstances” surrounding the shooting.

Brumfield-Young argues that “juveniles are not monoliths” and although a 10-year-old child and a 17-year-old adolescent “are developmentally different,” neither should be treated “as though they are adults.”

“For example, California’s youth offender parole framework applies to many people who were under 26 when they committed their offense, and Vermont’s youthful offender law reaches some young people who are under 22,” Brumfield-Young said. “Those laws do not erase accountability. They reflect the reality that there is a developmental difference between a teenager or an emerging adult and a fully mature adult.”

She also believes the criminal justice system isn’t equipped to punish older teens as adults.

This type of prosecution, she believes, exposes young people to systems and consequences that “often make rehabilitation harder” and can lead to educational disruption, reduced access to age-appropriate treatment and lifelong collateral consequences.

“I really believe that we can hold children and adolescents accountable without treating them as adults,” Brumfield-Young said.

“In a case this tragic, we can grieve the death of the infant, support the family, take seriously the child’s behavior and mental health needs, and still recognize that a 10-year-old is not legally, developmentally or neurologically the same as an adult.”

Sylvester Brown Jr. is the Deaconess Foundation Community Advocacy Fellow.