A 21-year-old woman accused in a deadly drive-by shooting in Birmingham will be tried as an adult, a Jefferson County judge has ruled.

Kaylin Sparks is charged with capital murder in the Nov. 28, 2021, slaying of 30-year-old Donnika Sills. The gunfire erupted following a dispute between two women in the middle of Third Avenue North, and ended with Sills, a mother and innocent bystander, dead from a gunshot wound to the head.

A detective previously testified the dispute started over an incident on Snapchat.

Sparks, who has been jailed since her December 2021 arrest, sought youthful offender status. After a hearing this week, Jefferson County Circuit Judge Teresa Pulliam denied Sparks’ request.

Pulliam, in her court order, said she took into consideration a memorandum brief in support of the youthful offender status, as well as arguments from lawyers on both sides and statements from Sills’ family.

Defendants ages 21 and under can apply for youthful offender status which, if granted, reduces punishment to a maximum of three years in detention and seals all records involving the case.

A grand jury in June indicted Sparks on the capital murder charge, as well as an attempted murder charge, and she was arraigned on those charges following Pulliam’s ruling. A trial date has not yet been set.

The shooting happened about 3:30 a.m. that Sunday in the 100 block of Third Avenue North. Police responded to the scene after hearing the gunfire.

The city’s ShotSpotter system also alerted police that more than 10 rounds had been fired in the area. Sills was pronounced dead on the scene.

In an earlier hearing, Birmingham homicide Det. Jonathan Ross testified that Sparks and one of her friends had gone together to the Empire Gentleman Club, where they ran into another woman with whom Sparks’ friend had been feuding.

The disagreement apparently began over something that took place on Snapchat and involved a man, Ross said.

Sparks’ friend and the other woman got into a physical fight outside the club.

Ross said that Sparks’ friend, who isn’t charged with any crime, had a broken bottle and the woman with whom she was fighting had a knife.

Sparks, Ross said, had a gun and anytime someone came to try to break up the fight, Sparks pointed it at them and scare them off.

The fight was captured on at least one Facebook Live video that Birmingham investigators later obtained.

Eventually, Sparks and her friend got into Sparks vehicle and left.

Sparks was driving and her friend was in the passenger’s seat.

They circled the block and went back to where the fight had been taking place.

The woman with whom the friend was fighting was still out there, as was a crowd of people just milling around.

Sparks’ friend would later tell police that Sparks rolled down the window on the friend’s side of the car, leaned over her and began shooting through the open window while the car was still moving.

Sills, who police said was not in any way involved in the dispute, was struck as well as a second woman who survived her injuries.

Sparks, Ross said, drove to a relative’s home.

Once there, she told a male relative that she “messed up” and may have shot and killed someone.

That relative said, “Give me the keys and the gun, and I’ll get rid of them.”

Ross said the car and the gun have not been found.