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14-year-old boy accused of killing Dearborn woman set a girl's hair on fire when he was 12

Posted at 7:38 PM, Sep 16, 2019
and last updated 2019-09-16 20:50:48-04

DETROIT (WXYZ) — When Demaurio Dismuke was just 12 years old, he admitted to setting a girl's hair on fire at Amelia Earhart Elementary-Middle School in Detroit, according to juvenile court records obtained by 7 Action News.

A felony assault charge was dropped and Dismuke pleaded guilty to assault and battery.

Dismuke said he was trying to scare the girl by putting a lighter near her head.

A court referee ordered that Dismuke be detained because his "mother has failed to address Demaurio's aggression towards others, resulting in Demaurio assaulting peers and endangering others."

Dismuke was ordered to write a letter of apology to the victim and "an essay on why what he did was wrong and what he should have done differently," according to court records.

Dismuke's mother, Cieara Tate-Meredith, told the court that she was considering sending Demaurio to live with his grandparents in Arkansas.

However, three months after setting the girl's hair on fire, it was his own mother who was calling police on him.

Demario Dismuke was still just 12 years old when his mother accused him of punching her in the stomach multiple times.

Meredith told police that she asked her son to hold something up for her, he refused, and he walked out of their apartment. Meredith told police that she grabbed her son by the arm to pull him back and that's when he began to hit her.

Dismuke was charged with count one of domestic violence and count two of being incorrigible.

On June 6, 2017, Dismuke admitted that he had been "repeatedly disobedient and disrespectful to his mother." Then earlier this year, Dismuke and a 13-year-old friend were arrested for shoplifting in Dearborn. They were charged with retail fraud and failing to obey a police officer.

Dismuke pleaded guilty to the shoplifting charge and admitted to concealing and stealing $53 dollars worth of underwear. The 13-year-old admitted to stealing $3 worth of chicken.

However, after he failed to meet with his probation officer in the shoplifting case, Dismuke was placed on a tether - the same tether Dearborn police said he was wearing when he was arrested for the robbery murder of Saja Al-Janabi.

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On the night of Sept. 6, Al-Janabi was arriving at her family's home in Dearborn when investigators said Dismuke shot and killed her during a robbery. He was with two other teens.

And this time, Dismuke is being prosecuted as an adult.

Jamel Philson, 17, and a 13-year-old boy have also been charged with multiple crimes, including armed robbery and felony murder.

The 13-year-old is being prosecuted as a juvenile with an adult designation, which means a judge can decide to sentence him as an adult or a juvenile.

That 13-year-old is the same boy who was arrested with Dismuke for shoplifting earlier this year.

7 Action News contacted Dismuke's mother for comment. In a text full of expletives, she declined to talk.