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OVER-THE-RHINE � Her name was Africa Hope, but her life was anything but 
hopeful.

Raised by her 74-year-old grandmother since she was two months old because 
her own mother was addicted to drugs, the 15-year-old was constantly in 
trouble, rarely in school, ran the streets at night, slept all day and 
smoked pot.

So when she was gunned down as she stood with a crowd of people on an 
Over-the-Rhine streetcorner late Monday, her family said they were not 
surprised.

"I did everything I could," said her grandmother, Corline Stone of the 
West End. "I did the best I could. I had many sleepless nights worrying 
about her. I blame the system. If they had listened to me, this wouldn't 
have happened."

Africa was hit in the neck with a bullet that quickly took her life just 
after 11 p.m in the 1700 block of Vine Street near Green Street, close to 
Findlay Market, in a community that has seen millions in redevelopment in 
recent years and increased police patrols aimed at curtailing violent 
crime exactly like this.

No arrests have been made. It is not clear if Africa was targeted or an 
innocent bystander.

Cincinnati police have released information - to the public and Africa's 
family - about the city's 22nd homicide so far this year.

Her grandmother said in a tearful interview this morning that she begged 
and pleaded with Hamilton County juvenile court officials and caseworkers 
to lock her granddaughter up in a detention facility, or to put her in a 
foster home - anything to get her under control.

She said her pleas went unanswered by a revolving door of caseworkers and 
magistrates as the girl cut monitoring systems from her ankle, scaled out 
third-story windows to escape being grounded to her room - even when her 
bedroom windows were nailed shut - and failed to show up for court-ordered 
work programs.

While Africa did serve time, short, three-day stints in the county 
juvenile detention center, she never seemed to stay locked up for long 
because her offenses were not felonies, her family said.

She'd thumbed her nose at her grandmother and went right back to running 
the streets.

"I pleaded with these people to place her somewhere, but they never did," 
she said.

The vicious cycle stopped Monday.

She said she last saw her granddaughter around 5:30 p.m. at their 
condominium on Derrick Turbow Avenue. After that, she disappeared as usual 
into the night. She would often return home by daybreak and sleep until 5 
or 6 p.m. at night.

Friends and relatives sat with Stone around her kitchen table today as she 
tearfully recounted her efforts to help her granddaughter.

They defended her, saying an old woman can only do so much when a teenager 
knows how to work the system and knows she can call the police on any 
adult who attempts physical discipline.

"This woman right here bent over backwards," said longtime family friend 
T.J. Stutson, 53, of Avondale, who accompanied Stone and her granddaughter 
to juvenile court more than once. "She did everything to help her. It's a 
hard job and this woman never gave up.�

�Africa took advantage of her,� added her uncle, Rodney Stone, 42, of 
Price Hill. �She did whatever she wanted to do. She ran these streets like 
an adult. She wasn�t scared of anything.�

The last time Africa�s mother saw her, on Saturday, she said she tried to 
stop her daughter from fighting another group of girls on Linn Street in 
the West End. Her daughter became angry at her and left.

�The last thing my daughter said to me was that I was messed up because I 
had been drinking and doing other things,� recalled Africa�s mother, 
Vanessa Hope, 50, of Cheviot. �She thought that I was on their side. And 
my daughter told me I was messed up and I went against her and she was 
disappointed in me and she walked away. That was the last time I talked 
with my child.�

�But you know God has her now,� her mother said. �She don�t have to go 
through that. Her (grand)mother doesn�t have to worry about her not coming 
home...not going to school and other things. Africa was a bright, smart, 
beautiful child, but all of a sudden she just started having issues and 
issues within herself that no one knows about but her and the Lord. And 
God called her home.�

Juvenile court officials and county caseworkers were not available today 
to immediately respond to the family's complaints.

Africa's blood remains on the sidewalk outside a building for rent at 1701 
Vine St. as residents go about their day and police continue 
investigating.

"It's a black eye on the city," said one of them, Shawn Richard, 32, an 
Over-the-Rhine native. "It seems like they are building new buildings and 
doing renovations for economic redevelopment, but the crime is still down 
here. They need to come clean the blood up. It is just another unsolved 
murder, man. She was so young, ain't even begin to live her life."

County court officials acknowledged that most of Africa�s juvenile 
criminal record, which started in 2009, consists of violations of court 
orders. Most of her original offenses were fairly minor misdemeanors such 
as curfew violation and running away.

Some of the more serious offenses included a domestic violence charge that 
was reduced to disorderly conduct in February 2010.

But in response to allegations that the system failed the teen, they 
listed a litany of county-contracted services provided to Africa and her 
family. Those include a 2011 stay in a residential program called Passages 
at Talbert House for teenage girls and at least two rounds of intensive, 
multi-week in-home counseling sessions.

And when Africa walked away from a court-ordered work-detail, a warrant 
was issued for her arrest and she was thrown in the county juvenile 
detention center in Mt. Auburn for three days while she completed another 
work detail in its place, noted Hamilton County Juvenile Court 
Administrator Curt Kissinger.

�Every option that we had was made available to her,� Kissinger said, �so 
I definitely say the court did not fail her. We are limited in what we can 
do, but to the extent the court can help facilitate and use community 
programs, that�s what we do and that�s what we did and where it goes from 
there and whether the youth decides to take advantage of those 
opportunities or services that are being offered once they go outside the 
court is really upon them.�

Africa�s family could have turned over custody of her to the county at any 
time and requested she be put in a foster home, but there is no record of 
that occurring, he said.

Africa�s grandmother petitioned the courts for custody of her 
granddaughter in 2004, and there are no complaints, abuse or neglect with 
the family, said Hamilton County Chief Juvenile Magistrate Carla 
Guenthner.

�In these times and when these types of tragedies occur, you are always 
kind of looking for explanations,� Kissinger said, �but I am not sure 
there is a lot, looking back and wondering what could have been done 
differently and in different circumstances, it�s just unfortunate.�

Added Guenthner: �Every child is so different in the way they respond to 
what is being provided to them. That is why you saw a range of 
opportunities the country tried to prepare for this woman, ranging from an 
ankle monitoring bracelet all the way through residential placement.�



http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20120619/NEWS/306190009

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