Teen charged in slaying of Lee’s Summit woman to stand trial as adult
One of two teens charged with first-degree murder in the stabbing death of a Lee’s Summit woman will stand trial as an adult.
At a certification hearing Friday morning at the Jackson County Juvenile Justice Center in Kansas City, Judge Robert Schieber ordered Trevon M. Henry, 15, of Lee’s Summit, to face the charge at the adult level of the circuit court system.
A certification hearing for the second teen was continued to June 10.
Henry and the other teen are charged with one count each of first-degree murder, armed criminal action and first-degree tampering in the stabbing death of Tanya Chamberlain, who lived in Lee’s Summit.
Chamberlain, 43, was stabbed to death Nov. 1. The boys, ages 13 and 14 at the time, were charged Nov. 4.
According to Lee’s Summit police, Chamberlain was at a car wash when she was approached in the early morning. Henry and the other teen entered Chamberlain’s car with her, police said, and soon drove off.
An officer then attempted to stop the driver on suspicion of driving while intoxicated.
The vehicle went over a curb and into a grassy common area of an apartment complex in the 500 block of Southeast Second Street. After briefly chasing two people who fled from the vehicle, the officer returned and found Chamberlain dead in a passenger seat.
At a previous hearing for Henry, it was revealed that Chamberlain was stabbed or cut 49 times, with wounds to her right and left jugular veins causing her death.
Robert Pietak, a deputy for the Jackson County medical examiner’s office, testified that Chamberlain suffered multiple stabbing or incised wounds to the face, neck, back, forearms and hands.
Pietak said an autopsy also revealed that Chamberlain had a large incision wound to her neck and was stabbed on each side of her body.
Testimony from Ahmad Belcher, a deputy juvenile officer for the Family Court of Jackson County, revealed that the teen suspects approached Chamberlain three times prior to what authorities called an unprovoked attack.
This story was originally published May 6, 2016 at 11:24 AM with the headline "Teen charged in slaying of Lee’s Summit woman to stand trial as adult."