A 16-year-old girl will serve the next 2-1/2 to 6 years behind bars after pleading guilty to hitting a Temple University student across the face with a brick — breaking her jaw and dislocating her teeth — in one of several random assaults near the North Philly college campus.
A Philadelphia judge also sentenced Zaria Estes to four years probation for aggravated assault, conspiracy and possession of an instrument of crime in the March attack, which sent the victim to a hospital for emergency surgery.
Estes was charged as an adult after Philadelphia Judge Benjamin Lerner denied a request made by her attorney to send her case to Family Court, even though he agreed to allow the cases of her alleged accomplices, who are also juveniles, to be moved.
Initially, all three teenage girls were charged as adults for the random, gang-style attacks. They were taken into custody several days after the assaults occurred.
Authorities said the group of teen girls — none of whom live in the neighborhood — took a bus to the area March 22.
The girls then came across the 19-year-old Temple student and her boyfriend who were walking near the intersection of 17th and Norris streets — just outside Temple's campus — and began taunting the couple, police said.
One of the attackers then struck the student in the head. As her boyfriend pushed the assailant away, Estes smashed the 19-year-old girl with a brick across her face.
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Police said at least two other similar attacks took place within minutes of this assault.
