Self defense or murder? In video, Tacoma teen details stabbing mom’s boyfriend
In a video-taped statement played in a Pierce County courtroom Tuesday, a 15-year-old boy accused of fatally stabbing his mother’s boyfriend tearfully described how he was punched and strangled before he closed his eyes and swung a knife he’d grabbed for protection.
The blow killed 23-year-old Malik Session.
“I didn’t want to do it,” the teen said in the video, sobbing into his sleeve. “I didn’t want to do it, but I knew if I didn’t do it, I was probably going to die.”
The teen’s 9-year-old brother watched the fight unfold from atop his bunk bed. In his own video statement shown in court, the boy said Session choked his older brother into their room from the hallway and hit him before the stabbing occurred.
The emotional videos were taken by the 15-year-old’s defense team and played during a detention-review hearing in juvenile court for the teen, who has been held in custody at Remann Hall on the charge of second-degree murder for the April 30 death of Session.
The man was killed in an apartment building south of Tacoma, and the Sheriff’s Office has said a domestic dispute between him and the teen’s mother preceded the stabbing. Neighbors reportedly heard yelling and objects being thrown around in the unit just before someone screamed for help.
The News Tribune generally does not name teenage suspects who have not been charged as adults.
The teen’s defense attorney, Bryan Hershman, asserted his client’s innocence during the hearing and called the case a “baseless prosecution” while stating with confidence that he would win a trial on the basis of self-defense. He noted that there were only three living witnesses to the incident, and all spoke in the teen’s favor.
“This gentleman has lived his entire life in this town,” Hershman said in court. “He is being traumatized by the state of Washington, and I want you to watch him tell this story, the pain in his face, the tears in his eyes.”
Deputy prosecuting attorney Robin Sand, meanwhile, called out the fact that the fourth witness, Session, is not alive to refute the others’ accounts of what happened, which was why the state was disputing what she called the defense’s “one-sided evidence.”
Prosecutors have filed a motion seeking to move the 15-year-old’s case to adult court. In juvenile court Tuesday, Sand objected to the video statements being played and argued against releasing the teen to the custody of his grandfather, claiming he was a danger to the community and could influence the other witnesses if let out.
“There’s also that he’s a flight risk, in that the state has moved to decline this to adult court, and if this court does, he’s looking at 12 and a quarter to 20 years if convicted of murder in the second degree with the deadly weapon enhancement,” Sand said.
Judge Joseph Evans ordered the teen be released to his grandfather’s supervision at the end of the hearing.
Hershman also filed motions seeking to have the case dismissed for lack of evidence. Evans did not make a ruling on that motion, but the judge said the attorney had a “very strong” self-defense case.
The defense attorney’s motions claimed the 15-year-old was not only defending himself but also his younger brother and his mother, who indicated to detectives in an interview that Session hit her in the face, and she woke up on the floor before Session ran into her son’s room.
Photographs were also presented in court showing bruises to the 15-year-old’s neck and face, contradicting reports from Sheriff’s Office deputies stating the teen had no visible injuries. Hershman said the photos, which were taken by law enforcement and provided to him by prosecutors in discovery, showed choking patterns and bruises consistent with being punched. Photos of the teen’s mother showed that her eye was swollen.
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Teen’s video statement describes fatal stabbing
At the start of the 15-year-old boy’s video statement, the teen said he was protective of his younger brother. He described a typical morning, waking the boy for school and getting him to the bus while his mother works or runs errands.
The teen sat at a table in blue and white jail clothing in the May 5 video taken in Remann Hall. He fiddled with a stress ball while answering questions from his attorney, speaking with a shaky voice. The nearly 17-minute video was provided to The News Tribune.
Asked about his mother’s boyfriend, Session, the teen said he generally tried to keep his brother away from the man because he was a bad influence. He said Session had told him how he sells drugs for money, described being in a gang in California and he had heard the man talk about carrying guns.
In his court motions, Hershman made note of Session’s criminal history, including felony convictions for unlawful possession of a machine gun and unlawful possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver in 2024. Prosecutors brought more charges regarding drug dealing and reckless driving in December, but the case was pending at the time of Session’s death.
On the night of the incident, the 15-year-old said his mother left the apartment at about 8 p.m., and he and his brother went to bed at about 10:30 p.m.
At about 1 a.m., he said he woke up to the sound of a door slamming. The teen said he heard his mother and Session arguing and the sound of his mother slamming her bedroom door.
“I heard my mom crying, and I heard, I think I heard him hit her,” the teen said. “And that’s when I got up on my bed, and my little brother was sleeping, so I was pretty upset. So I said shut up.”
Through the door, the teen said he heard Session turn his anger on him, threatening to knock him out followed by the sounds of banging and crashing. The teen said he went to the kitchen while he shook with fear.
“I grabbed anything that I felt that could protect me,” the teen said. “And at first I grabbed the whisk but then I was shaking so bad that I grabbed anything I could protect myself with and that was the knife.”
In the hallway of the apartment, the teen said he heard more crashing in his mother’s bedroom and his mother yelling, “Please!” He said the door to his mother’s room opened, and Session looked at him and ran toward him.
“He socked me, then he punched me and then he grabbed me by my neck,” the teen said through tears. “And then he flew me across the room into the desk, and I tried to get him off of me. I didn’t want to do it.”
The teen said he closed his eyes and swung the knife. Session let go of him and dropped to the floor, clutching at his neck. The teen said the man screamed and said, “You stabbed me.”
The teen said he started screaming, too, calling for someone to call 911. He said ran through their residence, grabbed a towel and tried to help Session.
“I was like why? Why?” the teen said, crying. “I just told God, why? I asked God, why? I didn’t want do this. I didn’t want to kill him at all. It plays over in my head and over and over.”
The teen continued to sob as the video ended.
Sheriff’s deputies were dispatched to the apartment at about 1:42 a.m, according to court documents. Session was taken to Tacoma General Hospital, where he died of his injuries.
Hershman said in court that the first law enforcement officer who contacted the 15-year-old had his gun drawn. The deputy wrote in his report that the teen was crying uncontrollably, and he appeared to have blood on his face. The deputy wrote that the teen was so distraught he tried to hug him for comfort.
