Articles - 13-year-old girl charged with murder in St Lucia

CASTRIES, St. Lucia: A 13-year-old girl in St. Lucia has been charged with murder in a barroom stabbing, police said Tuesday.

The defendant was among a group of teenage girls that attacked a woman in a rural section of the eastern Caribbean island on June 13, according to a police statement. Authorities have not released her name because she is a juvenile.

The girl had been kicked out of a reform school and allegedly led the gang behind the attack on 20-year-old Kevana Antonia King. She has been charged in the killing along with 19-year-old Ava Alexander.

Authorities say the assailants had been feuding with another gang of teenage girls, but they have not disclosed a possible motive.

The mandatory sentence for murder in St. Lucia is hanging, although executions are rarely carried out because of lengthy appeals. Whether the younger defendant is eligible for capital punishment will be up to the judge.