District Attorney Jason Williams is firing back at critics who say he went back on his word to not prosecute juveniles in adult court.
In an interview with WWL-TV, Williams stated he ran and was elected because above all he promised to the make the streets of New Orleans safer.
He acknowledged he is moving ahead to charge two 16-year-olds as adults based on the crime they committed, killing a woman who was delivering food to family members during the pandemic.
“I didn't run for DA to make friends. I ran to make the city safer, and this is absolutely the right decision in this particular situation,” Williams told WWL-TV.
According to the Times-Picayune/New Orleans Advocate the move has angered some supporters so much they’ve called his removal as DA.
Williams has already transferred a number of cases to juvenile court.
But the killing of Zelda Townsend in 2019 in a botched auto burglary is going to adult court as a holdover from the years of DA Leon Cannizzaro.
Meanwhile, Williams has gotten an indictment Que’dyn Growe and Demond Thomas in the January 3rd attempted carjacking of Anita Irvin-LeViege, in which the woman was shot and killed.
“The limitations of the juvenile justice system would mean these individuals could serve as little as three or five years in jail for taking a woman's life, for shooting several high-powered rounds into her,” Williams said in explaining his decision to the station. “That's simply not justice. So I have done this with a heavy heart, but it is required because one of the campaign promises that is not being discussed is prioritizing violent crime in the city. And that's what we have to do.”
Williams says the rash of youth crime in the city is due to juveniles being paid by adults to go out and commit car break-ins and car-jacking.
Williams vows to hold the adults involved in duping and paying off these juveniles to justice.
