A Shreveport teen accused of an armed robbery late last month will be tried in Caddo District Court and not in Juvenile Court, Caddo District Attorney James E. Stewart announces.
Christopher Hicks Jr., 17, is alleged to have committed a robbery at gunpoint on January 22 at the Lakeside Garden Apartments in Shreveport. The victim had ordered food from a delivery service. When he went back into his apartment to retrieve his phone to confirm delivery of the food, Hicks allegedly followed him into the apartment and robbed him of money and his own firearm at gunpoint.
Hicks, already on probation through juvenile court for another offense, was transferred, pending trial, from the Caddo Parish Juvenile Detention Center to Caddo Correctional Center by District Court Judge Mike Pitman.
The Louisiana Children s Code, Article 305, provides for the divestiture of juvenile court jurisdiction upon review by the District Attorney for offenders aged 15 years or older for a number of criminal acts. A provision of the same code’s Article 879 further provides that all proceedings in a juvenile delinquency case involving a crime of violence as defined by the code must be open to the public.
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