Case Involving Young Teen Charged With Killing Sister Is Transferred To Juvenile Court

UPPER PROVIDENCE, PA — A young teenage boy charged in the fatal shooting of his sister back in March will have his case play out in juvenile court after a Montgomery County Common Pleas Court judge agreed to transfer the matter.

Jah'Sir Vasquez, now 14, of the 100 block of Larchwood Court in Upper Providence, was charged in the March killing of his 13-year-old sister, Jasiyah, after he allegedly went to grab a gun at his mother's behest and ended up pointing it at his sister, who died from a gunshot, according to prosecutors.

Patch first reported on the case this past spring.

The Mercury Newspaper of Pottstown reported Thursday that Judge Thomas C. Branca signed an order this week transferring the case to juvenile court.

Vasquez was initially charged as an adult.

According to county prosecutors, Upper Providence Township police officers responded to the family's home on March 19 at around 7:51 a.m. for a reported shooting inside the residence, and once inside they discovered Jasiyah lying on the living room floor with a single gunshot wound to the chest.

She was pronounced dead at the scene.

Prosecutors said that an investigation uncovered that the mother, Daisy Vasquez, had asked her son to retrieve her legally owned firearm from her vehicle parked outside, and that when he brought it into the house, the gun discharged and shot Jasiyah.

Daisy Vasquez was also charged in the case, and she is currently awaiting trial. She faces counts such as endangering the welfare of children, hindering apprehension or prosecution, and recklessly endangering another person.

According to the report in the Mercury newspaper, both the defense and prosecution in Jah'Sir Vasquez's case had reached an agreement to transfer the matter to juvenile court.

"We're incredibly grateful," defense attorney Carrie L. Allman was quoted as saying in the Mercury. "We believe that this was the appropriate resolution. He was a 13-year-old child at the time that this incident occurred. He was acting at the request of his mom in getting that gun and this is a horrible tragedy."

Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele said back in March that the case was a preventable tragedy, and that a "pivotal aspect is the mother asking her child to go outside to the driveway