Judge Rules Teen Charged In Friend's Death Should Stay In Juvenile Court

A Wake County judge has ruled a 15-year-old accused of giving a schoolmate a lethal combination of drugs should be tried as a juvenile.

The young man charged in this case is now 16, but he was 15 in October 2005, when 16-year-old Erica Hicks died.

The judge was considering if the boy should be charged as an adult. The suspect is charged with second-degree murder for allegedly supplying Hicks with drugs.

The state medical examiner's report shows that Hicks ingested a lethal combination of drugs, including cocaine and Ecstasy. She later died at Western Wake Medical Center in Cary.

This weekend, a 911 tape was released in the case that showed a lag time between the time of the first call and the time the teen ran to a neighbor's to get help for Hicks.

For several weeks a judge in the closed courtroom has been hearing testimony and deciding whether or not the boy should be tried as an adult.