DETROIT – A 15-year-old charged in an attempted murder plot on her family has broken her silence about what happened in an interview obtained exclusively by the Local 4 Defenders.
Roksana Sikorski is being prosecuted as an adult on seven charges, which include assault with intent to murder and conspiracy to commit murder.
Prosecutors allege the teen stabbed her 12-year-old brother in the throat with a knife in their Plymouth Township home last October.
"He woke up and started screaming. I started screaming. I dropped the knife and I said, ‘Oh, my God. I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry.' I tried to hug him," Sikorski said.
The teen is asking to be charged as a juvenile because she says she had no choice in the act. She says her then-boyfriend, Michael Rivera, told her he would kill her if she didn't comply.
"If I didn't do what I did, I would get killed. Not only would I get killed, but he would make me watch as he killed my family," Sikorski said.
The teen met Rivera online and their relationship led to a sexual encounter. Sikorski said Rivera initially told her he was 17 and when she found out he was actually 23 she tried to end things.
"I was praying that something would happen, for him to go to jail or something. I didn't want to be near him. I was afraid of him. But I kept it going because if I didn't he would threaten me that he would hurt me," Sikorski said.
When Sikorski's parents found out, they wanted Rivera charged with rape. They went to police, but he was never charged.
Sikorski's attorney, Leslie Posner, says Rivera was the mastermind behind the crime.
"This is a child who was barely 15 years old when a very bad thing happened. She met a bad man on the Internet," Posner said.
On the night of the attack, prosecutors said Rivera was texting instructions to Sikorski.
"I text him on my mom's phone, ‘I don't know what to do.' And he goes, ‘Cut like, slice like a tomato.' I say, ‘What do you mean,' and he sends me an artery picture and it's like right over here [points to neck], where you do that," Sikorski said.
Sikorski said she was afraid and wanted to call 911, but didn't.
"I felt, well, I can't call the cops because that will take too long. He'll come in and hurt everybody and find me trying to call the cops," she said.
She decided to cut her brother in the hopes that it would be enough to pacify Rivera until he could be arrested.
"My brother, he knows that I wouldn't, you know, hurt him on purpose. He knew there had to be a reason because I've never ever done something like this in my entire life and I would never have dreamed of doing this," Sikorski said.
The screams awoke Sikorski's parents who ran to give aid to her brother. The teen fled with Rivera until they were both taken into custody. Rivera is also charged with attempted murder in the case.
Posner says Sikorski should be prosecuted as a juvenile because she was taken advantaged by an older man she feared.
"He's a creature and he preys on young girls. The one he picked this time was a girl who was struggling, struggling to fit into a family that adored her," Posner said.
Sikorksi, her brother and a younger sister were all adopted from a Polish orphanage. Sikorski suffers from mental health issues related to being physically abused by her birth parents.
"My dad, he pushed me down the stairs and put me in a dog cage. I was terrified," Sikorski said.
The teen said she realizes what she did was wrong and will have to face the consequences, but doesn't think she should be prosecuted as an adult, with the possibility of going to prison for the rest of her life.
"I don't like I deserve to go to prison because I didn't mean to do what I did," she said. "I'm a kid. I'm a 15-year-old and no, I'm not an adult."
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