LOS ANGELES (KNX) — A woman convicted of sexually assaulting a a 10-year-old girl will serve her sentence in a Los Angeles County juvenile facility. She is 26 years old.
Hannah Tubbs, who identifies as a transgender female, was matched to the crime through a 2019 DNA analysis. She was just shy of her 18th birthday in 2014 when she reportedly assaulted the victim inside a restroom at a Denny's restaurant in Palmdale.
Tubbs has admitted to committing the assault.
Tubbs was prosecuted as a juvenile under a policy instituted by L.A. County District Attorney George Gascón that youth offenders not be tried as adults. Judge Mario Barrera subsequently sentenced Tubbs to two years in a juvenile facility.
Prosecutors had argued for the judge to transfer Tubbs to an adult jail, insisting California law gave such authority. Barrera disagreed.
"This court will not disregard what the legislature has put onto it as a limitation," he said, contending the California state legislature eliminated any transfer authority in juvenile cases.
Because of the case's juvenile status, Tubbs will not be required to register as a sex offender. She also faces a lesser sentence than if she had been tried and convicted as an adult.
Backlash against the ruling was immediate. Deputy D.A. Shea Sanna deemed it "every parent's worst nightmare."
L.A. County Supervisor Kathryn Barger acknowledged that Barrera's "hands were tied" not due to legislative limits, but due to the fact that Gascóns office failed to file a motion to transfer Tubbs to adult court.
"We're left with a 26-year-old individual sentenced to two years in a juvenile facility in isolation, separated by sight and sound from other juveniles," Barger wrote in a statement on Thursday.
The victim did not appear in court, but wrote a letter testifying in part: ""I live in fear most of the time."
