A 17-year-old has been arrested in Texas in connection to the death of a 9-year-old girl last year.
Tara Zieman of the Mobile County District Attorney’s Office confirms to PEOPLE that the 17-year-old — who has not been named due to their age — has been extradited from Texas to Mobile, Ala., on a capital murder charge.
The teen is among five people charged in connection to the death of Cailee Knight, 9, who was asleep on the couch when shooters fired into her Mobile, Ala. home on Dec. 5, 2023.
An AR-15 was used in the shooting, per Zieman.
Clockwise from top left: Tyrone Williams; Darius Lucky, Jr.; Ricki Thier; Ariel Curry.
Mobile County Sheriff’s Office (4)
On the day of the shooting, the city’s chief of staff, James Barber, said that Cailee’s family member was the intended target, per WKRG.
However, despite confirming that a city official had made such a claim, Zieman says that the district attorney’s office has not “taken a position on who the target was because that’s evidence that needs to come out at trial.”
On a GoFundMe page, Cailee’s mother, Andrea Bright, remembered the 9-year-old as having “such a beautiful spirit.”
Two days after the fatal shooting, Ariel Curry and Tyrone Williams were booked into jail by the Mobile County Sheriff’s Office.
In September, Curry and Williams were each indicted on two counts of capital murder and one count of attempted murder by shooting into an occupied dwelling, according to the Mobile County District Attorney’s Office.
The dual capital murder charges are based on shooting a child under the age of 14 and shooting into an occupied dwelling, per the Thirteenth Judicial Circuit Criminal Court clerk’s office.
Darius Lucky, Jr. was arrested Dec. 9, 2023, per his booking records, and is indicted on two counts of capital murder, per prosecutors.
Prosecutors say all three are being held without bond under Aniah’s Law, which enables judges to deny bail on the basis of the violent crimes for which defendants are accused.
Ricki Thier was arrested on Jan. 25, 2024, per booking records. Thier faces murder charges in two separate court cases, per the clerk’s office and prosecutors.
Thier is charged with two counts of capital murder and one count of attempted murder by shooting into an occupied dwelling in connection with Cailee’s death, per prosecutors. A grand jury set no bond for Thier, based on the capital murder charge.
Almost a year after the fatal shooting, the four adults in the case will be arraigned on the capital murder case Nov. 26, per the clerk’s office. The 17-year-old — who will be charged as an adult in the case and is held without bond — will be arraigned at the same time, according to Zieman.
Lawyers for the adults charged in the capital murder case were not listed in the clerk’s records.
Will Alford, Thier’s court-appointed lawyer, represents her in a separate drug-related homicide – which he says occurred months before the 9-year-old’s fatal shooting – in which she is charged with felony murder and breaking and entering.
Alford says Thier, who is currently held at Mobile Metro Jail, has entered a plea of not guilty to those charges and that she is accused as an accomplice in the case and evidence does not suggest she shot anyone. She returns to court Nov. 20 for a status hearing in the case, per the clerk’s office.
He says it’s unclear if he will represent her in the capital murder case. “I am still in the dark,” Alford tells us in a phone interview, adding that he is unaware of any overlap between the earlier case and Cailee’s death.
Prosecutors have not yet indicated if they plan to seek the death penalty in the capital murder case. If convicted of capital murder in the state of Alabama, defendants may be put to death or given life behind bars without parole.
