16-Year-Old Girl Pleads Guilty In Plot To Kill Family Members, Run Away With Adult Boyfriend
A 16-year-old Detroit-area girl pleaded guilty this week to charges that she plotted with her adult boyfriend to kill her family members so she could run away with the man, CBS News is reporting.
Roksana Sikorski, 16, was charged as an adult and faces up to 20 years in prison for an attempt to murder her family and run away with her adult boyfriend, Michael Rivera. Rivera is already serving a life sentence for conspiracy to commit murder and attempted murder in the 2014 plot. Sikorski pleaded guilty Monday in the Wayne County Circuit Court to assault with intent to murder and will be sentenced March 28.
(Detroit News) #Plymouth teen pleads guilty in attempt to kill family : Roksana Sikorski.. https://t.co/tyEMBPoesg pic.twitter.com/HbazK4S6jl
— InUSANews (@inusanewscom) February 23, 2016
Sikorski was receiving text messages from Rivera on how to “cut into the neck like a tomato” to make sure victims died quickly.
Prosecutors say the 16-year-old Detroit girl stabbed her brother multiple times and tried to stab her younger sibling at her family house in Glenmore Court in Plymouth Township at 2 a.m. The boy’s screams alerted family members, who stopped Sikorski from stabbing her younger sister. The boy was hospitalized but survived the attack.
Investigations reveal that the 16-year-old girl was in a sexual relationship with Rivera, whom she met on Facebook. According to court documents, Rivera was charged with having sexual relations with Roksana Sikorski, a minor.
The defendant’s lawyer, Leslie Posner says that Laurene and Jeffrey Sikorski had no idea of the true nature of their daughter’s relationship with Rivera. But when they realized it was a sexual one, they contacted police and were on the verge of having him arrested for having sexual relations with their daughter. The Sikorskis believe Rivera manipulated Roksana and convinced her to murder the family so that he could escape prosecution.
Attorney Leslie Posner says Sikorski suffers from reactive attachment disorder (RAD), an uncommon but severe condition that emerges in children who have been grossly neglected and unable to form an emotional bond with caregivers or parents. Reactive attachment disorder (RAD) develops when a child’s basic needs of affection, nurturing, and comfort are not met, making it hard for a young child to establish healthy attachments. The defendant’s lawyers say she suffered abuse before she was adopted from Poland along with her brother.
“In the 90’s, plenty of people were adopting children from Poland and as it turns out many of them have a condition known as RAD– Reactive Attachment Disorder. They come from very very very very bad backgrounds. They were locked in closets and severely beaten by their biological parents. It’s really tragic but they suppress a lot of what happened – post traumatic stress disorder – type thing. And then something like this can happen.”
A judge had recently ruled out the criminal sexual conduct charges brought against Rivera at the behest of the prosecutor. Posner believes the prosecutor dropped the “sexual charges against a minor” so that Roksana could be tried as an adult in the murder plot. Posner insists that the sexual charges will still be brought against Rivera in future.
Roksana’s parents told reporters that their daughter was “under a spell” when she met Rivera on Facebook.
“He was always using her to do his dirty work”, Laurene said. ” She probably thought the guy was in love with her and was willing to do everything he told her. She was very very vulnerable.”
Despite the nasty turn of events, Laurene and Jeffrey plan to stand by her daughter.
“She has a mental disorder and needs help. We want to make sure that she gets that help. We are supportive of her,” she said.
[Image via Shutterstock/sebra]
