A 16-year-old girl was found guilty of fatally stabbing Amanjanea Whitley, above, of Southeast Washington, in the 4800 block of Benning Road on March 22. (Family Photo)

A 16-year-old D.C. girl was found guilty of second-degree murder Monday in a March fatal stabbing during a fight at a Southeast Washington bus stop.

After a trial that lasted more than a week, D.C. Superior Court Judge Kimberley Knowles said she rejected the teen’s assertion that she was acting in ­self-defense. The youth stabbed an older teen, 18-year-old Amanjanea Whitley.

The Washington Post generally does not identify suspects charged in juvenile court. Court officials allowed The Post to cover the hearing — which usually is closed to the public — on the condition that the charged teen not be named.

The fight between the teens broke out the morning of March 22 at a bus stop in the 4800 block of Benning Road SE. According to testimony, the teens also had a run-in in the weeks before the killing, and their families lived near one another in the Simple City neighborhood of Southeast.

The 16-year-old’s attorneys, Emily Stirba and William Alley with the D.C. Public Defender Service, unsuccessfully argued that their client was protecting herself and her unborn child when she pulled out a knife and stabbed Whitley. The younger teen, who is the mother of another child, was six months pregnant at the time. She was waiting to catch a bus to school.

Amanjane La-Shell Whitley, of Southeast Washington, was stabbed several times a she fought with a 16 year-old girl in the 4800 block of Benning Road about 9:30 p.m on March 22, 2016. (Family photo) (N/A/Family Photo)

[Teen was acting in self-defense, attorneys say at trial]

Prosecutors Michelle Hersh and Denise Katz-Prober with the D.C. attorney general’s office said that Whitley, who was unarmed, only yelled at the younger teen and told her she wanted to fight. Whitley yelled that she was going to kill the teen and her unborn child, the prosecutors said, but they said it was the 16-year-old who escalated the situation to physical violence.

Words, the prosecutors argued, did not justify killing. “She was only armed with her words,” Hersh said during closing arguments. “She should not have died because of her words.”

In juvenile cases, the judge hears the case, not a jury. Knowles said she decided her verdict based on the testimony of the witnesses. The Post was not present during the testimony of the charged teen or of one ­14-year-old witness. The judge took the unusual step of ordering The Post, as well as the victim’s family, out of the courtroom because the teens told the attorneys they were anxious about ­testifying.

In announcing the verdict, Knowles noted that although Whitley initiated the confrontation, the 16-year-old, with her knife displayed, stood up from a bench and followed Whitley to a grassy area where the two began fighting.

“When she got up from that shelter and walked to the grassy area, she lost her right to ­self-defense,” Knowles said.

The teen began arming herself with the knife in February after an altercation with Whitley and others. But what remained unclear, to the frustration of the judge, was that the reason the teens were fighting was not revealed at trial.

Amanjane La-Shell Whitley, of Southeast Washington, was stabbed several times a she fought with a 16 year-old girl in the 4800 block of Benning Road about 9:30 p.m on March 22, 2016. (Family photo) (N/A/Family Photo)

The medical examiner testified that Whitley died of a 3 1/2-inch stab wound to her heart, the exact length of the blade on the teen’s knife. Whitley was also stabbed in her back.

The judge said the teen herselftestified that she chose the pink knife to carry because “it was ­scary-looking.”

Sentencing is scheduled for Nov. 18. The teen could be placed on probation or Knowles could order her committed to the Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services. The maximum time she could be held is five years, until she turns 21.

Outside the courtroom, Whitley’s parents said that although they were pleased with the verdict, they were angry that the teen was not charged as an adult.

“She only faces five years. Five years for killing someone. I will never get my daughter back. I have to visit her at her gravesite and she only faces five years. That’s foul,” Whitley’s father, Sandy Gilbert, said.