Jersey Teen Not Indicted

A grand jury has decided not to indict Gloucester City teenager Jasmine Karo in last month's stabbing death of her father.

Karo, 18, allegedly stabbed her father, Alan, with a kitchen knife during a fight at their home May 6.

Prosecutors had charged Karo with murder, but quickly reduced her bail and stressed that the determination of whether the charges would stick would be up to the grand jury.

Karo had broad support in the community, where it was known her father was abusive. She graduated this week from high school.

Authorities said that Karo took a telephone to her basement bedroom because she was expecting a call from her boyfriend. Her father, they said, had been drinking all day and showed his anger by throwing the phone at her.

The teenager, a senior at the alternative high school in Gloucester City, told prosecutors she later heard her father pushing and arguing with her mother, Margaret Smiley, who is Karo's girlfriend of 20 years.

The father ended up with the daughter in a headlock and at some point, she reached for a kitchen knife and stabbed him in the shoulder. A neighbor said Alan Karo told his family not to call the police.

A family friend patched his wound with a bandage and said he seemed fine. But hours later, he began bleeding and died before help could arrive.

Karo's lawyer, Robert DePersia, told The Associated Press that his client was not indicted. Camden County Prosecutor Vincent P. Sarubbi scheduled a 5 p.m. news conference.

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Author: NBC10/AP