Teen violence escalated to a deadly stabbing in Phoenix. How a self-defense claim changed two families forever

AHWATUKEE, Ariz. - A late-night fight near an Ahwatukee park ended in the fatal stabbing of 15-year-old Jaylen Reeves, leaving his family demanding justice after prosecutors declined to file charges against the 14-year-old suspect, citing self-defense.

The Night of the Incident:

Against the lake’s calmness in this Ahwatukee neighborhood, violence crept in beneath the darkness. A late-night walk in November quickly turned into a struggle to survive.

"Phoenix 911, where is your emergency?" a dispatcher asked.

"[Expletive], where we at? Somebody just stabbed my boyfriend," a caller told 911 dispatchers.

Fifteen-year-old Jaylen Reeves collapsed in the street near East Lakewood Parkway and South 40th Street.

"Yeah, caller, get some clean towels, dry towels, get pressure on that, just hold to apply the pressure as hard as you can, OK?" the dispatcher instructed.

"I told you we shouldn’t of went on that walk," Jaylen said.

"He said he can't feel his legs," Jaylen's girlfriend said.

"He can't feel his leg? Both of them or just one?" the dispatcher asked.

"Both," Jaylen replied.

"I'm gonna die," Jaylen said.

"I can't breathe," he added.

"Yes, you can," his girlfriend said.

"My lung," Jaylen added.

A Young Life Remembered:

Carla Medina-Reeves is Jaylen’s grandmother. She says he was the kid you wanted in your corner.

"He would be that kid that would be like, ‘You could do this, you're going to do it,' that kind of mentality. Just sweet. He was a good kid," Medina-Reeves said.

A sophomore at Mountain Pointe High School, who had a passion for football, with dreams of playing in the NFL. His great aunt Bevla Reeves calls him a leader and mentor for his three younger brothers.

"Always positive, always gentle, just always so kind and considerate of others," Bevla Reeves said.

'That's where it began, our nightmare'

Hours Following the Attack:

But during the early morning hours of Nov. 16, 2024, Carla says Jaylen snuck out of his room to hang out with his girlfriend.

"We didn't get that opportunity to discipline him for sneaking out. He lost his life," Medina-Reeves said.

It was just after 3 a.m. when Jaylen’s grandmother heard banging on her front door.

"And I open the door right away and there's officers. And then. That's where it began, our nightmare," Medina-Reeves said.

She walked outside to a crime scene and her grandson’s bloody shirt, surrounded by Phoenix Police officers.

"74 feet to my house, to my front door. And when I walk to the lake with my grandbabies, they didn't see what I saw, but I do when I walk, and I make sure that they're happy. They don't know about this. It's hard," Medina-Reeves said.

At the Chandler Regional Medical Center, family members packed the hospital room. Jaylen was in the intensive care unit after undergoing surgery. Having been stabbed multiple times, he needed several blood transfusions.

"I was just like, ‘Baby, you can do this, you got this. The doctor said you're a fighter, you've got this, you can do this.’ Even in my heart of hearts, I was having doubt. I just tried not to because that's my grandbaby," Medina-Reeves said.

Later that day, Jaylen died.

"They told us he was gone, but we didn't want to believe it. They would check every now and then because, of course, we just prayed so hard that they were wrong and that he was going to wake up. But he didn't," Bevla Reeves said.

Jaylen’s girlfriend remained in the car while the brawl unfolded. Once he realized he had been stabbed, Jaylen’s friends dropped him off near his home where he waited for paramedics, bleeding out.

During a 911 call later that morning on Nov. 16, 2024, a dispatcher asked, "What happened last night, or where was it at exactly?"

"Ahwatukee, Lakewood. Some boys attempted to kill my son, and I need to speak to the officers," the caller replied.

That call to police came from another mother whose 14-year-old son stabbed Jaylen Reeves, claiming self-defense, hours after the fight.

"They just casually went and had a sleepover, like nothing happened. And Jaylen was fighting for his life at that time," Bevla said.

The teen who stabbed Jaylen did not call police immediately or notify his parents until the next day. He is not being named since he is a minor and was never arrested or charged.

"If I claim self-defense and I stab somebody in self-defense, I would be calling my mom, my dad, the police, the ambulance, someone to come help them," Medina-Reeves said.

When asked why he waited to notify his mother about the life or death struggle, the teen's mother replied, "At that point in time, when they were there that night, they thought it was a bad fight, and they snuck out and they didn't want to get in trouble."

But he didn’t stay quiet that night. Instead the boy sent Snapchat videos of his injuries to friends.

Thirty minutes later, police say the 14-year-old suspect sent a text message to the driver of the stolen car. "Yo HB done 4" is a message the teen’s mother was asked about. She believes the so-called prank of stealing the vape cartridge was instead a robbery.

"The point of the text that he sent out was because he had just been robbed, beaten and attempted murder. And his point was that he's going to jail because of the whole thing, if Jaylen hadn't died, Jaylen would be the one that was investigated," the mother said.

What the Police Report Reveals:

According to the Phoenix police report, social media rumors about the killing spread across Snapchat and Instagram within days of Jaylen’s death. Phoenix police received numerous anonymous tips, piecing together more about that night and quickly identifying a suspect.

As first responders rushed to save Jaylen, police discovered a glove, folding knife and ski mask found in a nearby front yard. The report does not explicitly say those items belonged to him. Ten days later, police interviewed the driver of that Hyundai which they determined was stolen. Police say he initially lied about several facts until his parents demanded that he be honest, and admit to stealing the car.

When asked if Jaylen knew the car was stolen, Medina-Reeves replied, "I can tell you what I know. I do know that he snuck out to be with his girlfriend."

But the 300-page police report details what happened through different eyewitness accounts from both parties. Some of them were not forthcoming according to investigators. The report says Jaylen and his girlfriend met up and left in a 2018 Hyundai Sonata with three teenage boys. At around 2:30 a.m., the group pulled over at the northeast side of the Lakewood community park where a group of six to eight teenage boys were already hanging out. The 14-year-old in that group knew the driver of the Hyundai through football and had asked him for a ride.

The teen had a marijuana vape cartridge, known as a "cart." The driver snatched it and drove down the street before turning around to return it. Many witnesses’ names are redacted but the report says the fight started when another teen didn’t like what was described as a prank and threw a "fake punch." Jaylen swung back, landing with a closed fist as some kids ran away, the report says.

Self-Defense & Trebus Letter:

Here’s where the suspect’s Trebus letter comes in. His attorney put this document together for the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office, detailing what he would testify to if the case was presented to a grand jury to decide on charges of homicide.

Because defense attorneys are not allowed to present evidence or cross-examine witnesses in front of a grand jury, they submit what is called a Trebus letter, a document detailing exculpatory evidence they want prosecutors to show the grand jury. The Trebus letter does reveal that the teen driver said before the fight that the group was doing "Kia boy [expletive]," meaning stealing cars and driving recklessly.

The teen’s attorney says he tried to use his pocket knife to ward off Jaylen, who allegedly punched him multiple times before the boy stabbed Jaylen below his left arm. Then the teen stabbed Jaylen again before throwing the knife backwards towards the lake, according to the Trebus letter.

"Our client was attacked by Jaylen Reeves. He was unprovoked," said Christine Whalin.

Whalin is the managing partner for DM Cantor and wrote that Trebus letter to the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office. She argues that Jaylen dominated her client with his size. The autopsy report lists Jaylen as 5-foot-8 and 168 pounds. The teen who stabbed him was 5-foot-1 and 110 pounds. Whalin says Jaylen grabbed the boy by the hoodie and pulled his head forward towards the ground during the fight.

"He was wearing baggy, baggy clothes, baggy sweatshirts, baggy jeans, and take the sweatshirt and pull it up over his head, causing our client to be closer with his head to the ground, unable to get his head up," Whalin said.

"And our client hears them saying, ‘drown him, let's drown him in the lake,'" Whalin said.

Whalin says the alleged statement was repeated and justified lethal self-defense. The police report confirms multiple witnesses heard the suggestion to drown the teen, but it’s unknown if Jaylen ever said it himself before the fight was broken up.

The Trebus letter says Jaylen grabbed the teen by the legs and lifted him up to slam him to the ground, moments after the knife had been thrown away. According to her client’s medical records, he sustained a black eye, busted lip, neck bruising, back and rib pain, and skull contusions.

Now for the first time, that boy's mother is speaking publicly about the case.

"I'll take this any day of the week because my son is with me and my heart breaks for the Reeves, that they don't have their son with them. But it was his choice to attack other people, thinking that there was no ramification for his actions," the teen's mother said.

Evidence, Conflicting Accounts:

"How can you stab someone multiple times when your hoodie is pulled up over you? And in the position and then every spot where he was stabbed, how is that humanly possible?" Medina-Reeves said.

A body diagram attached to the autopsy report shows stab wounds to Jaylen’s left upper back, left back and right back.

When asked how the teen was able to stab Jaylen in the back while he was standing face down with a sweater over his head, the teen's mother responded, "So, if I'm facing you, you're facing me now, and you pick me up, I'm going to be swinging at you this way. The stab direction, the autopsy is downward and they were both high on the back. So, if I'm facing you this way and you've got me up in the air, I'm going to go over your shoulder like a bear hug. Like my hands would be over your shoulders."

When FOX 10 asked Dr. Rebecca Hsu if the autopsy report shows clear self-defense, she replied, "No, it is not clearly self-defense. Now, of course, there are always extenuating circumstances."

Dr. Hsu is an independent forensic pathologist and is not associated with the case. She reviewed Jaylen’s autopsy report but not the police files.

"Given where the locations of the wounds are, it doesn't seem that the person, whoever had the knife, was completely unable to see where they were striking," Hsu said.

Dr. Hsu points to three stab wounds in his back as a critical factor while noting that the fatal blow was a stab to the chest that pierced Jaylen’s heart. He also had a black eye and superficial sharp force wounds to the left side of his stomach. The police report describes the knife as four to six inches long.

"If you're randomly striking at someone, you will probably happen to hit the face maybe and happen to an arm or a leg unless you've been pinned, and you can only reach that area, it's a little bit suspicious when you see no injuries in locations that would be defensive or just more suggestive of sort of a brawl type of fight," Hsu said.

Important to note, Whalin submitted the Trebus letter in January 2025, a month before Phoenix police extracted her client’s cell phone data. Whalin was not aware of the text message that appears to read, "Your homeboy is done for."

"Well, I'm not aware of it. I don't know that it actually exists," Whalin said.

When informed it was in the police report but not the Trebus letter, Whalin responded, "When we are providing the Trebus letter, we're giving all of the information that we have at that time. So, you know, for purposes of this interview, I did not reread the entire police report. If it's in the police report that means that the county attorney's office was aware of it when they made the decision and even despite that they made the decision that there was no reasonable likelihood of conviction in this case because of how strong the self-defense is."

The Decision Not to Prosecute:

Jaylen’s mother, Rena Reeves, was distraught, left with countless questions due to the slow drip of information. Speaking at a vigil following Jaylen's death, she said, "The only thing we know is our son is dead and the person who did it hasn’t been arrested and is claiming self-defense."

Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell has never been interviewed about Jaylen Reeves’ case before. In May 2025, her office declined to file charges against the teen who stabbed Jaylen to death, citing no reasonable likelihood of conviction after reviewing the Phoenix Police Department's recommendation for a charge of second-degree murder. The Phoenix police report says the suspect "knowingly stabbed" Jaylen, "causing his death."

"When self-defense is raised, we have to able to disprove it beyond a reasonable doubt. And based on the evidence that we reviewed, we felt like self-defense claim could not be disproven," Mitchell said.

When asked how a prosecutor legally justifies the escalation to lethal force with a weapon against an unarmed teenager, Mitchell said, "In terms of proportional response, the law requires the response to be reasonable based on the circumstances and in this situation, you have a larger teen larger both in height and in weight who is hitting and body slamming a smaller teen and also threatening and this is not just what he's doing but people around him are saying, to take him to the lake that's right there and to drown him."

She was asked about that cryptic text sent by the 14-year-old after he stabbed Jaylen.

"You know, obviously we're going to look at some very unwise texts that were sent and see if it shows us what the intent was. So, you can look at the text afterwards, and that's important to do, and we did, but it doesn't change what the witnesses are telling us happened at the scene," Mitchell said.

Mitchell acknowledges there is no surveillance video of the deadly fight, leaving detectives to depend on conflicting witness statements. She calls the Phoenix Police Department's investigation thorough but says the self-defense claim would still hold up against lesser charges like manslaughter or negligent homicide.

FOX 10 asked why MCAO did not present the case to a grand jury. Mitchell responded, "The grand jury is a procedural protection afforded to the defendant so that we can show that we do have probable cause to go forward. But our filing standard, in fact, the filing standard of every prosecution office that I'm aware of is whether there is a reasonable likelihood of conviction. So just because I have probable cause in front of a grand jury doesn't mean that I have a reasonable likelihood of a conviction, meaning proof beyond a reasonable doubt."

Conflict Allegations, Closure:

Jaylen’s family also questions if the Maricopa County Attorney's Office's decision not to prosecute the case had to do with the suspect’s father and his leadership position at Axon Enterprise, a detail which has been verified independently. Axon is headquartered in Scottsdale but is a global leader in supplying public safety products for military and law enforcement.

"Is it a conflict? I question that," Medina-Reeves said.

"My husband works in operations. He's got nothing to do with contracts," the teen's mother said.

Mitchell responded, "I don't know this individual, I don't know the father, I don't know the family. Nobody involved in the evaluation of this case knows. We had an existing relationship, a contractual relationship with Axon. We continue to have that. Most police departments have that because of the product they provide. But it doesn't mean anybody is going to get away with a serious crime."

"I want justice for my grandson. I want a jury trial," Medina-Reeves said.

Phoenix police say detectives would not be available to interview with FOX 10 about the case, confirming that it’s been closed ever since the Maricopa County Attorney's Office declined to press charges.

"It's a hard, hard conversation to have. It doesn't give them any closure. It is something you remember, and I feel for them," Mitchell said.

Unresolved Grief & Aftermath:

Nearly two years after Jaylen’s death, the family says his mother Rena struggles every day with grief.

"It's painful to see my daughter change from this beautiful, vibrant, just loving mom to this mom that is just taking it every day by day. The sadness in her eyes, as a mother, you can't miss that. That is painful," Medina-Reeves said.

"And she kept telling us that she just wanted to go and be with him. And so, it took everything we had to convince her she had to stay here with us, she had to take care of her other children that Jaylen would have wanted her to do that, but she can't cope with it at all," Bevla said.

When asked about how MCAO values Jaylen's life, Mitchell said, "We value his life because he's, you know, a member of our community, because he is a young man that I just feel so bad about what happened to him. I feel for his family. It's got to be immeasurable grief, but the fact that he made some bad decisions that night does not change whether there is a viable self-defense claim."

"His life didn't matter to her," Bevla said.

Meanwhile, on the other hand, the teen’s mother says her family has faced harassment and threats, impacting her son’s education.

"This is a situation where there's no winners. And I'm sure that Jaylen's mother and I can agree on one thing. We wish our boys had never met," the mother said.

A single night by the lake changed the lives of two families forever, and the aftermath is beyond repair.

"It has broken our family. It's broken our families. It traumatized us," Bevla said.

What you can do:

If you want to read and watch more from the Aftermath series, click here.