News

Several media outlets are reporting that a Superior Court judge ruled today there was insufficient evidence for the mother of a teenage accused in the fatal stabbing of another boy to stand trial for murder.

According to the Times-Standard’s article, Judge Gregory Elvine-Kreis said the prosecution’s argument that Lorna Jean Leen “acted with ‘implied malice’ or ‘aided and abetted’” her son in the killing was not established.

Leen and her son, who is being tried as a juvenile, were arrested Aug. 10, the day after 16-year-old Brandon Brocious was found fatally stabbed in the Ocean View Cemetery.

According to an arrest warrant affidavit filed in the case and obtained by the Journal, Brocious was stabbed during a confrontation with the suspect and his mother over a stolen cell phone. During the argument, Leen reportedly held back a teenage girl who was with Brocious while her son stabbed him.

If convicted, Leen’s son faces imprisonment until he turns 25.

Read previous Journal coverage here,  here and here.