17-Year-Old Murdered Teenage Girlfriend Pregnant With Twins

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A 17-year-old Texas teen is likely to face adult charges in the death of a pregnant classmate, who was expecting twins. Authorities are saying he was the father of the unborn children.

Brazoria County District Attorney Jeri Yenne told The Houston Chronicle her office plans to ask the court to have the teenager tried as an adult in the March slaying of 16-year-old Arrijana Hill.

“It is important to us that this 17-year-old male be held accountable and the family of Arrijana Hill receive justice. She was brutally murdered,” Yenne said.

According to The Houston Chronicle, the boy, whose name is being withheld because he is still considered a juvenile, was 16 years old at the time of Hill’s death.

Police say Hill’s family found her dead inside their Pearland home on March 21. An autopsy by the Galveston County Medical Examiner’s Office revealed the teen died from manual strangulation and stab wounds.

“During the course of the investigation, it was found that Ms. Hill was pregnant with twins at the time of her death,” the Pearland Police Department said in a May 13 press release.

In an interview with News One, Lt. Patrick Savage said investigators were able to quickly identify a suspect in the case, whom he described as a known friend of Hill’s who attended the same high school.

“They were looking at this suspect from the beginning,” Savage said, without elaborating.

DNA analysis and a paternity test revealed the suspect was also the expectant father of Hill’s unborn twins, police said.

On May 13, the teen was taken into custody at Pasadena Memorial High School and transported to the Brazoria County Juvenile Detention center. Because Hill was pregnant at the time of her death, authorities charged the suspect with capital murder.

“[The arrest] was definitely helpful in … the healing process and a little more closure for us and my family,” Hill’s mother, Opal Hill, told Click2Houston.com on Tuesday. “My daughter had a delightful spirit — always smiling, always happy, so I continue to remember her as that person who was always happy and always in a good mood and smiling about something.”