A 16-year-old Erie boy was given a break in 2022 when, after being charged as an adult months earlier with firing numerous shots from two handguns at a passing vehicle and with having a significant amount of illegal drugs, his criminal case was decertified to juvenile court.
Nyjuan L. Manning won't get a similar break in his latest criminal case.
Erie County Judge John J. Mead has denied a motion by Manning, who recently turned 18, and his lawyer to have charges including attempted homicide and robbery he faces in a gun-related incident from June 2023 transferred from adult to juvenile court, as his earlier case was.
Mead issued his order on Friday, three days after hearing testimony on the decertification request.
Manning remains in the Erie County Prison on $250,000 bond, awaiting a trial scheduled for July in the June 2023 incident, according to information in his court docket sheet. He is one of four people charged by Erie police in that incident.
Dice game robbery
The two crimes Erie police accuse Manning of committing occurred at a time when the city saw a spike in shootings and other gun-related crime involving juveniles. Those crimes picked up in 2021 and stretched through 2022 and into 2023, and in some of those cases juveniles were shot and killed.
In the case in which Manning is facing trial, Erie police detectives accuse him of being among a group of people who reportedly robbed two men at gunpoint as the victims were leaving a dice game on East Eighth Street on June 7, 2023. Manning was 17 years old at the time.
The two robbery victims told police they were approached by the group, each of whom was armed with a gun, and were each robbed of several hundred dollars. One of the victims said that as one of the suspects took money from him, the suspect instructed another of the suspects to shoot him. The victim said he then heard a noise from the second suspect's gun, but no round was discharged, detectives wrote in the criminal complaint filed against Manning.
Manning is accused of being the person who attempted to fire the gun at the victim, and he was allegedly the first suspect to do anything during the physical altercation with the two robbery victims, according to testimony presented at last week's decertification hearing. Police wrote in Manning's criminal complaint that one of the victims stated Manning struck him in the head with a firearm during the robbery.
Erie police charged Manning in the robbery a day after the incident, according to court records. He was charged under the Fisher Bill, a state law that permits juveniles accused of committing violent crime to be charged as adults.
Earlier case moved to juvenile court
According to testimony at the decertification hearing, the June 2023 robbery occurred about two weeks after Manning's juvenile case in the 2022 shooting incident was closed.
Erie police in that case accused Manning, who was 15 years old at the time, of firing 18 gunshots at a passing vehicle from two handguns on Feb. 11, 2022.
The shooting happened in the area of East 28th and German streets. No one was shot, but a nearby business building that was occupied was struck by some of the gunfire, according to police.
More:15-year-old boy facing felony gun, drug charges after Erie police accuse him of shooting at car
Investigators said information was developed that led them to search a residence near the shooting, where police recovered two guns and quantities of suspected methamphetamine and suspected fentanyl. Police also received information that led them to Manning as a possible suspect in the shooting. When he was interviewed he admitted to possessing the suspected drugs, detectives wrote in his criminal complaint.
Erie police charged Manning under the Fisher Bill with offenses including aggravated assault and possession with intent to deliver. But prosecutors on June 1, 2022 withdrew the charges in adult court and they were refiled in juvenile court against Manning, who turned 16 in May 2022.
An assistant district attorney handling the case at the time said the case would be handled in the juvenile system mainly due to Manning's cooperation concerning his role in the incident. She also noted that Manning did not have any prior juvenile adjudications.
More:Case moved from adult to juvenile court for Erie teen charged with firing guns in February
Decertification hearing and judge's ruling
Mead, in his ruling keeping Manning's case in adult court, wrote that a review of factors indicate Manning is not amenable to treatment, supervision and/or rehabilitation, noting the robbery occurred two weeks after Manning was released from supervision in the 2022 shooting and drug case.
The judge also wrote the impact of the robbery case was substantial on the victim, and the impact of both crimes Manning is accused of committing is substantial on the community.
"The threat to the safety of the public or any individual is high, since defendant carried a firearm and was not afraid to use it on two separate occasions," Mead wrote in the order.
Contact Tim Hahn atthahn@timesnews.com. Follow him on X@ETNhahn
