SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Juvenile crime is something most have heard about the in news lately, from robbery to crimes involving guns. One of the most recent cases included a 10-year-old child accused of shooting and killing another 10-year-old.
The Sacramento case caught national attention when the 10-year-old was arrested for shooting and killing 10-year-old Keith "KJ" Frierson.
Family told ABC10 the boy arrested is back home; his father is now the only one facing charges related to this case.
As KJ's family searches for justice, the case has drawn many questions.
ABC10's Elisha Machado sat down with Sacramento County District Attorney Thien Ho to talk about the juvenile justice system.
While the DA could not speak on the pending case, we asked him about the challenges of the current system.
"The biggest challenge that we're facing now in our juvenile system in California is really a lack of tools to hold juveniles who commit violent crimes accountable. It's a constant balance between accountability and rehabilitation," Ho said.
He adds that those tools were impacted by Senate Bill 1391, passed by lawmakers in 2019. The legislation signed into law takes away a district attorney's authority to request a minor be transferred from juvenile court to an adult criminal court if they commit a serious offense when they are 14 or 15 years old.
"So if you have a 15-year-old that is two days or one day short of turning 16 and they commit a school shooting or commit a murder, we can't prosecute them as an adult," Ho said.
One example is the case of J.J. Clavo, a Grant Union High School football player killed by a 15-year-old in 2015. Ho's office prosecuted the case, but when the law changed, J.J.'s killer couldn't be prosecuted as an adult anymore.
"He was going to face 50+ years to life in prison for committing that murder and shooting someone else, an ambush style killing, and instead he only got seven years," Ho said. "At the age of 23, he was released from jail and is now walking free while (J.J.'s) mother, Nicole Clavo, faces a life sentence of having lost her son."
The DA told ABC10 that his office has seen an increase in juvenile crime, especially violent crime involving handguns. From 2022-2023, they saw a 74% increase in crimes committed with a gun by a juvenile and a 35% increase in armed robbery involving juveniles.
"One of the things that I would advocate for is allowing prosecutors to go to a judge, to a neutral arbiter to decide whether or not juveniles who are under the age of 16 can be prosecuted as an adult for murder, for child molestation, for robbery. And so, as a parent, you know that if you have rules and you have no accountability, you have chaos," he said.
The DA's office said they have a number of rehabilitation programs, including one aimed at teaching juveniles about gun violence and the consequences.
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