ALLENTOWN. (AP) - An eastern Pennsylvania detective says he told a teenage girl earlier this year that he "needed a reason not to arrest" her in her mother's stabbing death.

Detective Richard Heffelfinger testified Wednesday in Lehigh County Court that he didn't find such a reason before taking 14-year-old Jamie Silvonek into custody.

Authorities accuse the teenager and her boyfriend at the time, 21-year-old Army Spc. Caleb Barnes, of conspiring via text messages to kill 54-year-old Cheryl Silvonek in March in the driveway of her home near Allentown. Cheryl Silvonek is a native of Jim Thorpe.

The two are seeking separate trials. They also want the case moved to another county and want prosecutors barred from using their statements to investigators.

A hearing on Silvonek's motion to move her case to juvenile court is scheduled Thursday.