While protesters outside the Franklin County courthouse demanded her release, a 17-year-old girl admitted on Thursday that she was involved in a robbery that led to the shooting death of her boyfriend by a Columbus SWAT officer.

Masonique Saunders' admission in Juvenile Court to delinquency charges of involuntary manslaughter and aggravated robbery was part of a plea agreement that will keep her case in the juvenile system.

Prosecuting and defense attorneys recommend that she be committed to a state Department of Youth Services prison for three years, with a chance for release after two years for good behavior, Prosecutor Ron O'Brien said. She will be sentenced Aug. 2 by Juvenile Court Magistrate Woodrow Hudson.

Saunders has been in the Franklin County juvenile detention center since she was arrested six days after the Dec. 7 officer-involved shooting death of her boyfriend, 16-year-old Julius Ervin Tate Jr. An undercover Columbus police officer working a sting operation was robbed at gunpoint by Tate in the 1300 block of Mount Vernon Avenue on the Near East Side. According to the police account, Tate pulled a gun on the undercover officer, whom Tate thought was another unwitting customer who had responded to a bogus sales offer to obtain a cellphone for cash. SWAT officer Eric Richard shot Tate after Tate pulled the gun on the undercover officer.

Saunders originally was charged with delinquency murder because of Tate's death. Under Ohio law, a person can be charged with murder if an accomplice is killed while they are committing or fleeing from a serious felony offense.

The murder charge was reduced as part of the plea deal, in which prosecutors also dismissed gun specifications and withdrew a motion seeking to have Saunders' case transferred to adult court.

The decision to charge Saunders, then 16, with delinquency murder for a shooting by a police officer prompted a series of protests, including one on the sidewalk outside the Downtown courts complex during Thursday's hearing. When the plea and recommended sentence were announced to the crowd of more than 40 protesters, they began to chant, "That ain't right," while some wiped away tears.

The use of the so-called felony murder law is common in Franklin County, most often after home-invasion robberies in which an accomplice is shot and killed by occupants of the home.

In Saunders' case, she was not armed or alongside Tate when the undercover officer was robbed, but she used her cellphone to set up the robbery, O'Brien said. He said she admitted to setting up about 15 similar robberies, in which Tate was armed with a 9mm handgun, in the days leading up to the Dec. 7 incident.

O'Brien said the plea deal was reached after Saunders took and passed a polygraph examination, administered by the State Highway Patrol, that confirmed her role in the robberies.

"She did share in the money that was gained from the series of robberies," he said.

Defense attorney Jonathan Tyack said his client "has admitted to being involved in communicating with the victims and giving them instructions as to where to go to meet Mr. Tate."

Saunders, of the Near East Side, also admitted Thursday to an additional aggravated robbery charge for a Nov. 28, 2018, incident in which O'Brien said a woman and child were pistol-whipped.

Her admissions did not sway those who were protesting the charges against her and her detention.

"It is not fair for them to try her for a murder that she didn't commit where someone else pulled the trigger," said Maria Joranko, 26, a spokeswoman for the Coalition to Free Masonique. "When you have this charge and you are forced to make this decision in order to secure your freedom and avoid being charged as an adult, it is not right."

Dispatch Reporter Patrick Cooley contributed this story.

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