The teen charged in the killing of an Over-the-Rhine man in 2019 will be tried as an adult, according to court documents.
Brandon Dates, who was 16 at the time of the killing, is charged with murder, felonious assault and tampering with evidence.
He is accused of fatally shooting Ladon Williams in May 2019. Williams was 36.
During hearings in juvenile court, Dates' lawyers argued he was a victim of human trafficking at the hands of Williams.
They said Dates started selling counterfeit drugs for Williams at 15 and that the older man compelled him to commit other crimes as well.
His lawyers said Williams once shot Dates in the leg. Dates didn't tell police who did it, and eventually returned to work for him, they said.
On the day Williams was killed, he and Dates had a dispute over money, according to police. Williams slapped him and threatened him, then Dates later shot Williams, an officer said in court.
Had Juvenile Court Judge Melissa Powers agreed that Dates' actions were the result of victimization, Dates would have been diverted to a treatment program under Ohio's "safe harbor" law. Typically these programs require patients to live onsite under lockdown.
More:Judge says teen murder suspect was not a human trafficking victim
But Powers did not agree. She said Dates was not coerced into working for Williams. She said the teen was after "easy money." Powers said Dates, despite living with Williams, only did so because he didn't like the rules his relatives set for him.
Megan Mattimore, the executive director of Advocating Opportunity, helped to write Ohio's "safe harbor" law and trains lawyers on how it can be used.
She said both lawyers and courts are still learning how the law works. She would not comment on the specifics of this case but said it's hard for people to put themselves into the shoes of a trafficked teen.
"People who don't understand that kind of all-consuming climate of fear .. think that if you get out of the house or away from the trafficker, then you're going to be fine," Mattimore said. "(They think) getting away is enough, and it almost never is."
Dates has been held in juvenile detention since the day after Williams was killed. It is unclear if he will be transferred to the Hamilton County Justice Center. He is now 18.
He will likely be arraigned in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court in the coming weeks but a hearing has not yet been scheduled.
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