Pierce County teen fatally stabbed his mom’s boyfriend. Why case was dismissed
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- A 15-year-old boy fatally stabbed his mother's boyfriend south of Tacoma on April 30.
- Prosecutors dismissed the case against him, determining that the teen was justified.
- The boy's attorney said his client was protecting himself, his mother and younger brother.
A 16-year-old boy who claimed self-defense for fatally stabbing his mother’s boyfriend in an apartment building south of Tacoma was justified in the killing, authorities said.
Pierce County prosecutors on Thursday dismissed the criminal case against the teen, who had been charged with second-degree murder for the April 30 death of 23-year-old Malik Session, according to the Pierce County Sheriff’s Office.
“We are thankful this case can finally be closed, and this young man can move forward with love and support from his family and community,” the office said in a post on Facebook.
The teen, who was 15 years old at the time of the incident, had said Session punched and strangled him before the teen closed his eyes and swung a knife he had grabbed for protection, The News Tribune previously reported.
Session clutched his neck after being struck, screamed and said, “You stabbed me,” according to the teen. The boy’s account of the incident stemmed from a video-taped statement played in a Pierce County courtroom on May 13.
The incident in the 1000 block of 76th Street Court East was preceded by a domestic dispute between Session and the boy’s mother, according to the Sheriff’s Office.
“I am elated and, on some level, I appreciate that the Prosecutors’ Office could not dismiss a murder case without a lot of thought,” attorney Bryan Hershman, who was representing the teen, told The News Tribune after the case was dismissed. “They did the right thing. They absolutely did the right thing.”
In a motion filed in court to dismiss the case, the Prosecuting Attorney’s Office noted that officers were previously prevented from interviewing the suspect’s 9-year-old brother who witnessed the incident.
He ultimately was interviewed on Wednesday “and clearly described that the (teen) acted in self-defense and defense of another,” the office said, according to spokesperson Adam Faber.
Both prosecutors and law enforcement also said that state law passed in 2021, requiring juveniles to have access to a lawyer before they can be questioned, prolonged efforts to hear the teen suspect’s side of the story.
Hershman said he understood that the investigation was hampered by the fact that detectives couldn’t interview the 9-year-old brother at the scene because his mother wouldn’t allow it, nor could they immediately speak to the suspect due to state law.
As such, Hershman said he had access to information that authorities did not. Even so, from just what he learned at the scene, Hershman said it was a defense-heavy case that offered no doubt that his client had acted in self-defense.
“This was not a close call,” he said. “This is a case that would have resulted in a defense verdict in the first week and half. Frankly, the first week.”
In motions previously filed in court, Hershman said his client was defending himself, his brother and his mother who indicated to detectives that Session hit her in the face and she woke up on a floor, The News Tribune previously reported.
Photographs also presented in Pierce County Juvenile Court earlier this month showed bruises to the teen’s neck and face, consistent with choking patterns and being punched, according to Hershman.
The photographs contradicted reports from Sheriff’s Office deputies that stated the teen had no visible injuries, The News Tribune previously reported.
During a videotaped interview from Remann Hall, the juvenile detention center in Tacoma where the teen had been held until May 13, the teen said he woke up at about 1 a.m. to the sound of a slamming door and heard his mother crying. He added that he thought he heard Session hit her.
The teen said he was “pretty upset” and “(s)o I said shut up.” Session threatened to knock him out, according to the teen, who went to the kitchen seeking protection and grabbed a knife.
In the apartment hallway, the teen said he heard crashing again in his mother’s bedroom and her yelling, “Please!” before the bedroom door opened and Session ran toward him, prompting their altercation.
The prosecution said in court earlier this month that Session was not alive to dispute accounts of what occurred and it referred, at the time, to the defense’s evidence as “one-sided,” The News Tribune previously reported.
The teen was potentially facing 12 to 20 years in prison if convicted in adult court, a prosecutor had said.
This story was originally published May 29, 2025 at 4:42 PM.
