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Teens chanted 'murder gang' while detained for killing

Long Creek Youth Development Center workers testified about the chant during a hearing to determine if one of the teens should be tried as an adult.

Credit: Kennebec Journal/Joe Phelan

A Kennebec Country sheriff's deputy escorts William Smith, one of three teens charged in the April 2018 death of Kimberly Mironovas, out of the courtroom Wednesday at the Capital Judicial Center in Augusta during a break in a hearing to determine whether to charge Smith as an adult.

AUGUSTA, Maine — Three teens charged in the strangling and stabbing of a Maine woman chanted "murder gang" while detained.

The Kennebec Journal reports that several Long Creek Youth Development Center workers testified about the chant during a hearing to determine if one of the teens should be tried as an adult. The teen's lawyer suggested the trio could've been joking.

Law enforcement officials say the 15-year-old son of 47-year-old Kimberly Mironovas strangled and stabbed the Litchfield woman with the help of a 15-year-old boy from Massachusetts in April 2018.

RELATED: Prosecutors want to try a Massachusetts teen as an adult in the murder of a Maine woman

A friend of Mironovas' said her son was resentful of their move to Maine.

A third teen pleaded guilty to lesser charges. The state also wants to have a second teen tried as an adult.

The hearing wrapped up Thursday.