The mother of a community activist who was killed when his car was broadsided by a teenage joy rider urged a judge yesterday to release the youth to his family.
The emotional plea came at a sentencing hearing for the 14-year-old who has been found responsible for the death of Marx Aristide, a prominent activist for democracy and development in Haiti. The youth was driving a stolen car when he slammed into a vehicle driven by Aristide on June 19.
The D.C. attorney general's office, which is prosecuting the case, is seeking to have the youth kept in the city's custody until age 21, the maximum penalty for a juvenile. But Aristide's mother joined the teenager's family in asking a D.C. Superior Court judge to show mercy. Judge Fern Flanagan Saddler is expected to rule Monday, when the hearing is scheduled to resume.
The mother, Claire Aristide, who speaks limited English, made her appeal through an interpreter, Dahoud Andre, a friend of Marx Aristide's.
"Nothing is going to bring Marx back," Andre told the court. "What [Claire Aristide] is going to lose, she lost already, and there's no reason for another mother to have to lose her child over this accident."
Aristide, 37, of Silver Spring, was among four people in the Washington area who were killed within a month last summer in traffic accidents for which teenage car thieves were blamed. Another death was attributed to reckless driving by a 16-year-old. The fatalities led to calls for stricter law enforcement and tougher penalties against juveniles.
Authorities said the 14-year-old was driving a stolen Jeep Cherokee at high speed on 14th Street NW when he ran a red light at Florida Avenue about 6:25 p.m., ramming into the driver's side of Aristide's vehicle. Aristide died the next day. His fiancee, a passenger in the car, was injured.
The youth pleaded responsible to second-degree murder and other charges. He has been in custody at the Oak Hill juvenile detention center in Laurel since his arrest.
Juvenile hearings are typically closed to the public, but reporters were permitted to observe the proceedings on the condition that the juvenile's identity not be disclosed.
In seeking to keep the youth in custody until age 21, prosecutors cited his admission that he had driven stolen cars at least twice before Aristide's death. Prosecutors also said the youth had attempted to flee the scene of the crash.
"He acknowledged that he has stolen cars in the past," said prosecutor Lynette Collins. "So clearly this type of behavior poses a danger to the community and one that the court can simply not gloss over."
The youth cried at times during the two-hour hearing, in which his father and aunt testified that he was a good child who made a mistake. He is expected to address the court Monday.
His father cried, too, as he told the court: "I'm sorry for the tragedy my son caused you all. I tried to be the best father I could at a young age. Please, don't take my baby away."
Aristide worked as an economist and had once run the Washington Office on Haiti, a nonprofit human rights group. He was not related to former Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
His fiancee attended the hearing but did not make a statement and declined to speak to reporters.
