Lima juvenile to be tried as adult in February shooting

LIMA — The case of a 17-year-old charged with complicity and other felony counts related to the February shooting death of 14-year-old Lauralye Sterling at her Greenlawn Avenue residence has been transferred to adult court.

Cardarius Burns, who will turn 18 years of age on Oct. 31, is charged with first- and fourth-degree felony counts of complicity, two counts of having weapons under disability and one count of obstructing justice. He has been held at the juvenile detention center in Lima since his arrest on Feb. 14.

His case will now be heard by an upcoming session of the Allen County grand jury following a Sept. 26 judgment entry by Juvenile Court Judge Todd Kohlrieser transferring the case from juvenile court to the county court of common pleas.

The journal entry states that Burns was ordered to remain detained in the Allen County Juvenile Detention Center under a $250,000 cash or surety bond. If bond is posted, he will be placed on house arrest with electronic monitoring and is to have no contact with alleged co-defendants in the case.

The charges against Burns stem from an incident that occurred on Feb. 13 which resulted in the death of Sterling. Malik Dennis was formally charged with aggravated murder and two counts of murder, each unclassified felonies, along with single counts of felonious assault, improperly discharging a firearm into a habitation and tampering with evidence.

Sterling, a freshman at Lima Senior High School, was found dead of an apparent gunshot wound inside a residence at 788 Greenlawn Ave. in the early morning hours of Feb. 13.

Dennis admitted firing the shot that killed Sterling and also authored a brief written confession/apology. That letter was read aloud in Lima Municipal Court during a probable cause hearing on Feb. 22. It read, in part, “I am sorry for what I have done out of anger. Now that I am calm I realize I messed up. … I’m really sorry. I didn’t want anything to happen to her.”

No trial date has been scheduled for Dennis.

At that same municipal court hearing, attorney Steve Chamberlain from the Allen County Public Defenders Office said it was learned that Dennis had been robbed a short time prior to the shooting by two juveniles who were inside the Greenlawn Avenue residence. He reportedly left and returned with the firearm that was used to shoot Sterling.

Burns is alleged to have been one of those juveniles.