A 15-year-old boy who fatally stabbed a Knox County, Tennesse, teenage girl may be tried as an adult.
Savannah Copeland,13, was a cheerleader at Powell United Methodist Church Middle School. Copeland’s body was found on October 22 on a dirt walking trail behind a community pool in Broadacres Subdivision, according to The Knox County Sheriff’s Office.
8 WVLT reported that Michael Copeland, the victim’s father, knew something was wrong when he had not heard from his daughter. Michael Copeland used his daughter’s phone to track her location to the trails near 7700 block of Cranley Road. He later found his daughter’s lifeless body in the woods along the path.
“I think it was a lack of compassion and a lack of empathy that drove the hand that took my daughter’s life,” Copeland told 8 WVLT.
The Sheriff’s Office has named Malakiah Lamar Harris, 15, as the suspect responsible for Savannah Copeland’s death.
According to the New York Post detectives believe Harris lured Coepland to the trail in Powell, Tennessee just after midnight where he allegedly took out a pocket knife and stabbed her several times. It is unclear how Copeland and Harris knew each other.
Harris has been arrested and charged with second-degree murder, according to the sheriff’s office.
Prosecutors announced their plan to try Harris as an adult at his court appearance this week. January 14 has been set by the judge as the hearing date according to 6 News.
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