Family Thinks Daughter, 15, Overcharged in Plot to Kill Them

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The family of a Plymouth Township teen who allegedly plotted with her boyfriend last fall to kill her family as they slept last fall have raised questions about Wayne County officials’ decision to charge their mentally troubled adopted daughter as an adult.

Roksana Sikorski s scheduled to go on trial July 20 on four counts of conspiring to commit premeditated murder, one for each member of the family; one count of assault with intent to murder, one count of using a computer to commit a crime and felonious assault with a dangerous weapon, the Detroit Free Press reports.

If convicted, she could spend the rest of her life.

Wayne County prosecutors said Sikorski and her boyfriend, 23-year-old Michael Rivera of Detroit, hatched a “truly haunting” plan to kill Sikorski’s family so they could run away together.

“Bluntly, it is rare for this office to charge a 15-year-old as an adult. However, the alleged facts in this case strongly warrant this decision,” Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said in a news release last October.

Rivera faces the same charges, except for the charge of using a computer to commit a crime, and will be tried with Sikorski. He is separately charged with molesting Sikorski.

• Related: 2 Held in Plot to Kill Young Girlfriend’s Family

Sikorski allegedly stabbed her brother, 12, with a fillet knife on Oct. 17, before fleeing with Rivera. The boy and his siblings still nightmares, the children’s parents, Jeff and Laurene Sikorski, said.

They’re not ready to have Sikorski return to their home, they told the Free Press, but they think their daughter should be charged in juvenile court, where she stands a greater chance of receiving psychological counseling.

She was abused as a child in Poland, they said, and suffers from depression and post-traumatic stress disorder as a result. That made her emotionally vulnerable to advances by Rivera, who seduced and sexually molested her after meeting on Facebook, they said.

• Read the full story on the Detroit Free Press.

The case illustrates the difficult decisions the court faces, said Plymouth Township Police Chief Thomas Tiderington, whose agency investigated the case.

“You have her in one situation where she’s a child victim, and then another situation where she’s an adult perpetrator,” he said, adding that the outcome should be about helping the family “and obviously, this child.”

The court has noted the childlike demeanor of Sikorski, who stands about 4 feet, 8 inches tall and weighs 95 pounds.

When Wayne County Circuit Judge James Callahan threw out Sikorski’s confession on April 23, he noted that she put her head on the table or in her hands during police questioning, showing she “evidently was exhausted or thinking that she was back in kindergarten taking her noon break, her nap,” according to a transcript in the court file.

“... 30 to 45 minutes at the beginning of this discussion that she had with the police officer was about candy,” Callahan said. “I mean, good grief.”

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