Girls, 16, Face Life for Fatal $39 Cabbie Robbery

North Carolina pair to be tried as adults
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 27, 2012 4:26 AM CDT
Girls, 16, Face Life for Fatal $39 Cabbie Robbery
Emily Starnes (left), and Consandra Tyree have been charged with murder, robbery with a dangerous weapon, and conspiracy to commit robbery.   (Hickory Police Department)

Five young people in North Carolina may be spending the rest of their lives in prison for a robbery that made them less than $8 each. Police have charged two 16-year-old girls with the murder of a taxi driver who was stabbed to death and robbed of $39 last summer. Three men in their late teens and early '20s were charged soon after the murder, while the girls were initially questioned and released.

"We knew these two young ladies were involved from the get-go, but wanted to do a complete, thorough investigation," a police spokesman tells ABC. "It was clear that they had involvement before, during, and after the crime." The girls, he says, are old enough to be tried as adults and to face life sentences for the cabbie's murder. "In North Carolina, for criminal court purposes, when you're 16, you're treated as an adult," he says. (More murder stories.)

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