Masonique Saunders has been locked behind bars in Ohio since December, when, at age 16, she was arrested in the death of her boyfriend, Julius Tate. She celebrated her birthday in juvenile detention. Last week, she was sentenced to three years in a Department of Youth Services prison.

But Saunders did not kill Tate, and the person who shot him to death is not facing any charges. He’s a Columbus police officer.

On December 7, Eric Richards, a member of the SWAT team, was assigned to an undercover sting meant to thwart an online robbery scheme. The alleged robbers targeted people who had arranged to purchase items from them over social media, but upon arriving to get their purchase, were robbed at gunpoint. That night, according to the police report, an undercover officer played the role of a customer, and met Tate in an unmarked police car not far from Saunders’s house. Richards was in the backseat, serving backup. They say Tate robbed the undercover officer at gunpoint, and Richards, from the back seat, shot and killed Tate. Saunders was arrested six days later and charged with murder.



Prosecutors could charge Saunders for a murder she didn’t commit due to Ohio’s “felony murder” rule; people can be charged with murder if they “caused the death of another” in the course of committing, or intending to commit, a felony. More than 40 states have similar rules; in 24 states, felony murder is a capital offense, punishable by death. Saunders’s case is unique in that it was a police officer who killed the person she was charged with murdering, but it’s not at all unique for a teenager to face such a felony murder charge.

Columbus prosecutors didn’t have to prove Saunders intended to kill Tate, only that she intended to commit the underlying felony of attempted robbery. Being charged with felony murder meant Saunders could be tried as an adult, and, if convicted, would face 15 years to life in prison if convicted. “That’s not right,” her mother, Danielle, told me in April. “She didn’t kill nobody. I don’t think they should have that—felony murder. It lets police get away with it, the crimes they do. It’s not fair to us as human beings. I feel like if they commit crimes, they should get the charges they committed.” (The investigation into Richards’s use of force remains open.)