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A 16-year-old California girl will spend nearly a decade behind bars after admitting that she killed her mother last year after hatching the plan with her boyfriend and using a knife she had nicknamed “Buddy Buck.”
Kern County Superior Court Judge Wendy Avila on Wednesday ordered Emily Evil Reznick to remain in a secure youth facility until she turns 25 for the July 2022 murder of her mother, 54-year-old Michelle Louise Taylor, authorities confirmed to Law&Crime.
Because Reznick was only 15 at the time of the slaying, she could not be charged as an adult in the Golden State. The California Supreme Court in 2019 unanimously upheld a state law requiring all defendants under the age of 16 to be tried in juvenile court, where convicted offenders can not be incarcerated beyond age 25.
“You haven’t even begun to comprehend the magnitude of what you’ve done,” Avila told Reznick during a Wednesday hearing, according to a report from Bakersfield NBC affiliate KGET-TV. “Your mother was your victim.”
Judge Avila also reportedly castigated Reznick for her lack of remorse, recounting conversations the teen had about killing her mother and saying she spoke about her like she was not even “a real human being.”
“The minor’s disregard for human life and her ability to commit this crime is deeply troubling to this court,” Avila reportedly said during the hearing.
Reznick’s boyfriend, Nikolai Thorn Roach, earlier this month also pleaded guilty to charges of murder and conspiracy to commit murder. Judge Avila similarly sentenced him to remain in custody for Taylor’s “premeditated and gruesome” murder until he turns 25, Brownsville NBC affiliate KVEO-TV reported.
During Wednesday’s dispositional hearing, Assistant Kern County District Attorney Christine Antonios told the court that Reznick and Roach spent about a month planning Taylor’s murder, and prosecutors had the texts to prove it, according to KGET.
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The texts reportedly showed Reznick telling Roach when to come to the house and what he should wear, while also touching on getaway plans and alibis. Messages also reportedly showed that Reznick had named the murder weapon, using the moniker “Buddy Buck” to refer to the knife she used to fatally stab Taylor multiple times.
The young couple also debated whether they should kill Taylor’s live-in boyfriend, Antonios reportedly said. In the immediate aftermath of the stabbing, Reznick reportedly told friends that she thought Taylor’s live-in boyfriend may have been the one who killed her. She also suggested that her mother may have taken her own life, KGET reported.
Following her arrest, Reznick — who has said she was abused by her mother for much of her life — told police she was acting in self-defense, but the aforementioned text messages belied that claim.
Police on July 7, 2022 responded to a 911 call from a home located on Arthur Avenue in Oildale, just over 100 miles northwest of Los Angeles. The caller was later identified as Taylor’s live-in boyfriend, who was the first person to find her.
Upon arriving at the scene, first responders found Taylor unresponsive and suffering from what appeared to be several stab wounds.
Reznick and Roach were arrested the following day. While the young couple was in the back of a police vehicle equipped with a recording device, Reznick blamed her mom’s boyfriend for wrecking their plans, KGET reported.
In a grimly prescient move, she also reportedly told Roach that he shouldn’t be worried because they were both only 15 and would only be sent to “kid prison” for a little while.
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