GREENVILLE, S.C. — A 12-year-old boy accused of fatally shooting his classmate in a South Carolina middle school hallway should be tried as an adult on a murder charge, prosecutors told a judge Monday.
The prosecutors’ request to move the case out of Family Court did not include any explanation regarding why the boy should be charged as an adult. Murder carries a sentence of 30 years to life in prison in South Carolina. If he is convicted as a juvenile, he couldn’t be kept in jail after he turns 22.
Jamari Cortez Bonaparte Jackson was shot during a class change at Tanglewood Middle School in Greenville on March 31.
The suspect left school in the chaos but was found hiding under a nearby deck about an hour later and was still armed, investigators said.
No one else was injured.
Greenville County deputies have released little information about what led to the shooting. A one-page police report called it “possibly gang related” but provided no details to back up that idea.
The boy is charged with murder, possession of a firearm at a school and possession of a weapon by someone under 18. He remains at a juvenile prison in Columbia, authorities said. His name has not been released because of his age.
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South Carolina law allows anyone of any age to be tried as an adult on a murder charge if a judge allows it.
Jesse Osborne, who was 14 when he shot and killed a first-grader on the playground at Townville Elementary School in September 2016, is serving a life sentence for murder.
Townville is about 30 miles (48 kilometers) from the Greenville middle school.
(WATCH BELOW: 12-year-old student shot, killed by another student at SC middle school, sheriff says)
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