BATON ROUGE - District Attorney Hillar Moore recently filed a motion to have a 16-year-old tried as an adult for the carjacking and first-degree murder of a Southern University student. 

De'Arius Ellis was 16 for only nine days when he and a teen co-conspirator allegedly shot JoVonté Barber as he was trying to get in his car. According to arrest documents, Ellis and the other teen had tried to carjack another vehicle the same night, without success. 

Barber, a 22-year-old finance major only weeks from graduating, later died from his injuries. The university granted him a posthumous degree in May.

Ellis and the 17-year-old co-conspirator were both booked into the East Baton Rouge Juvenile Detention Facility for first-degree murder. 

A judge has not yet ruled on the district attorney's request.