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Zander Lyda sister, 12, stabs 9 year old brother to death but avoids jail

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Zander Lyda sister to avoid jail as Tulsa, Oklahoma mom April Lyda blames drugs. Images via social media.
Zander Lyda sister to avoid jail as mom April Lyda blames drugs
Zander Lyda sister to avoid jail as Tulsa, Oklahoma mother, April Lyda blames drugs. Image via social media.

Zander Lyda sister, 12, stabs 9 year old brother to death but avoids jail as girl’s mother, April Lyda defends daughter and blames medications. 

‘It’s some demonic s**t’. A 12-year-old Oklahoma girl who stabbed her 9 year old brother to death earlier this year is likely to avoid spending any jail time under a unique state law that spares children under the age of 13 of being charged as adults. The girl is instead likely spend a few years in a juvenile facility before being released home. 

On January 5, she stabbed her brother, Zander Lyda, three times in their home in Tulsa, Oklahoma. 

Their mother, April, was in the home and came rushing into her son’s room to screams where she came upon blood seeping through the 9 year old boy’s bedsheets. He had been trying to sleep when his sister came downstairs and attacked him. 

Bodycam video of 12 year old girl’s arrest released

The girl, sobbing and shrieking, ran out of the home, screaming, ‘I’m so sorry, I don’t know what happened. 

‘It’s some demonic s**t’. 

Since then, the un-named girl has been undergoing treatment at a juvenile facility in Tulsa. 

The case resurfaced this week with the release of bodycam footage of the 12 year old girl’s arrest, along with her mother, April’s initial conversations with police while her son was in the hospital.

Legal options

The details of her case are under seal, so many of the specifics of her crime remain unknown but her mother has claimed online that medication may have played a role in the tragedy.

Under Oklahoma Law, a child aged 13 or older can be charged as an adult for a crime like murder. 

It’s unclear how far away the girl was from her 13th birthday but had the attack happened after it, she could have faced five years in a juvenile facility – and the rest of her life in an adult prison. 

Because she is so young, the court process is drastically different. 

After being charged, she has the option to either stipulate to the state’s petition – plead guilty – or request a trial. 

If a trial goes ahead, she could attempt an insanity defense, and even argue that she was under the influence or had been drastically impaired by the medication her mother claims may have been to blame. 

Her mother has not made public what that medication was. 

Zander Lyda sister arrest caught on police bodycam video.
Zander Lyda sister arrest caught on police bodycam video.

Stint in juvenile center 

Carter Jennings, an Oklahoma Criminal Defense Attorney who handles juvenile cases, has claimed that the 12 year old would have had a low chance of success with an insanity defense on account of her throwing the murder weapon out of the window of her bedroom after running away from her brother’s bleeding body. 

Told the lawyer via the dailymail‘The child threw the knife out the window. She tried to cover up her tracks, so I don’t know what level of success you’d have [with that defense.] 

‘We don’t really have a diminished capacity defense… even in juvenile cases, they legally could put one forward, but based on these facts I don’t think it would be a successful one.’ 

If she is found guilty or stipulates, she will likely be sentenced to time in a juvenile facility. Her sentence according to Jennings will be focused on rehabilitation, with the attorney describing the facilities as ‘not fun’. 

‘It’s certainly not prison, but in terms of juvenile facilities – they’re under guard. 

‘They may be restrained by cuffs, eat at certain times, sleep at certain times. It’s not quite prison but it’s very serious,’ Jennings told the dailymail.  

Zander Lyda 9 year old Tulsa, Oklahoma boy stabbed to death by 12 year old sister
Zander Lyda 9 year old Tulsa, Oklahoma boy stabbed to death by 12 year old sister. Pictured the family home where the boy was murdered, January 5.

Zander Lyda sister to be in juvenile facility less than 5 years

He added that it would be highly unusual for the child to spend any longer than a few years in the facility – and that she almost certainly would not be there until she turned 18.

‘It’s unlikely it would go beyond 18 because of the young age of the child. This is very unique, but when someone is placed in a facility like that it can be for six months, a year, 18 months. 

‘When you get past longer than that you are looking at something unique – which this is – but the child is just too young to have kind of serious consequence at that age. 

‘The law understands that a 12-year-old may not have all the decision-making abilities that an older child would. 

‘Barring something crazy, she likely will not be in a facility until she is 18. A couple of years would be a reasonable.’ 

April Lyda, Tulsa, Oklahoma mother
Pictured, April Lyda, Tulsa, Oklahoma mother and her 3 children, including 9 year old boy, Zander Lyda. Images via social media.

April Lyda defends daughter and blames medications

To date, the Tulsa County District Attorney’s Office has declined to comment on the case, citing the case is under seal. 

A fundraising page organized by family friends in March described April Lyda’s daughter as awell behaved child with no prior history of behavioral problems.’

The fund which to date has raised just over $10K was set up with the intention of absorbing moving expenses to relocate the mother and her three year old son to a new home along with legal/attorney fees.

Told the girl’s mother at the time, ‘I’m very supportive of her and love her very much. 

‘Obviously there is a lot of healing that we both need before we can ever live together again and she needs mental and emotional help after this. 

‘She could have permanent, damage we don’t know yet, but she has not had any issues,’ the mother said in a more recent post in which she vowed to stand by the girl. 

‘They were good kids… they were raised as God fearing children and never had behavioral issues until she was put back on a medication she was off for over a year,’ she said.

She did not specify what type of medication the girl was taking but said, ‘no it wasn’t psych meds’. 

The boy’s father, Levi Lyda, has not commented.  

It continues to remain unclear why the girl stabbed her brother to death.

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