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Thursday, September 16, 2010

Ind. Courts - "Whether to waive boy, age 15, to adult court to stand trial on charges of attempted murder, aggravated battery and battery"

That is the subject of two good stories by Rebecca S. Green of the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette. The first was published Sept. 11, 2010, and headed "Judge to rule on juvenile slasher." Some quotes from the lengthy story:

FORT WAYNE – The knife sat, hidden in a sealed white box on the edge of the prosecutor’s table, throughout the daylong hearing in a juvenile courtroom.

But everything about the life of the 15-year-old boy who wielded it in January was laid bare before Allen Superior Court Judge Stephen Sims, who will decide by Tuesday whether to waive the boy to adult court to stand trial on charges of attempted murder, aggravated battery and battery.

A psychiatrist and psychologist discussed his family’s history with severe depression; his reaction to perceived slights at school; the dark, nihilistic music he liked and his struggle to fit in at Concordia High School – all in an attempt to explain why the teen took a military-style knife to the throat of a 17-year-old student in the school’s cafeteria.

Will Baker, now an 18-year-old student at Indiana University, told the court about how he held his hands to his injured neck while being chased through the halls by the younger boy, still laughing and carrying that knife.

Throughout the hearing, the teen sat still and sober between his parents and Robert Gevers, his lawyer. Gevers is arguing that the boy will respond positively to the rehabilitation offered through the state’s juvenile justice system but if locked up with hardened criminals will likely be ruined. * * *

Video taken inside the school that day showed Baker, blood soaking his shirt, fleeing down the hallways toward the nurse’s office with a grim-faced teen behind him, the knife still clutched in his hand and gaining ground on Baker as he ran.

The teen’s brother caught him and removed the knife from his grasp, according to testimony.

The teen had no history of trouble – legally, academically or within his family – according to testimony.

That makes his decision, and plan, to attack Baker even more troublesome, McAlexander said.

“What concerns the state is can this happen again?” he said. “There is clear premeditation here. … Citizens of this community can’t risk he would do it again.”

Despite the heinous nature of the attack and the premeditation involved, Gevers said all the experts agree the teen will respond positively to extensive psychological treatment.

Mental health experts who testified emphasized the importance of a residential center for about a year of treatment.

“You can never prove that something won’t happen again,” Gevers said. “But everyone is saying you have to take a chance.”

Friday’s hearing had been delayed a few times in the past eight months to allow further evaluation by mental health experts. Sims thanked both sides for taking so much time to continue their investigation into the events of Jan. 13 as well as the teen’s history.

“I don’t know that happens in all communities,” he said. “It serves the public well.”

"Adult trial ruled out in school slashing" is the headline to Green's story today that reports:
Allen Superior Court Judge Stephen Sims decided not to send the teen to adult court to stand trial on charges of attempted murder, aggravated battery and battery, stemming from the Jan. 13 attack.

In an order issued Tuesday, Sims said that, although the teen’s actions were “heinous and exacerbated in their severity in that the act was planned,” Allen County prosecutors failed to prove the teen was unable to be rehabilitated in the juvenile justice system. Nor did the state prove that the community’s safety and welfare are best served by putting the teen on trial as an adult, where if he were convicted he could serve more than 45 years in prison, according to court documents.

The decision, announced during a brief hearing Tuesday in the Allen County Juvenile Justice Center, came after months of deliberation and examination by psychologists and psychiatrists. The hearing on whether to waive the teen to adult court officially began in March after the charges were filed.

Although the attack on Baker was premeditated, hinted at in a Facebook posting the night before and carried out in such a gruesome way, the teen has no prior contact with the juvenile courts and has never been in trouble before.

During a lengthy hearing last week, mental health experts who examined the teen said the attack was still largely unexplained, other than as a completely disproportional reaction to a perceived slight by Baker, who had been his drum section leader in the Concordia High School marching band. “He felt targeted in the one thing that was his special gift,” said Dr. Tonya Foreman, a clinical and forensic psychiatrist, during Friday’s hearing. * * *

Prosecutors and the teen’s attorney, Robert W. Gevers, reached an agreement that called for all the charges to be merged into the most serious count of attempted murder. At the outset of Tuesday’s hearing, the teen admitted to the facts outlined in the charges, and Sims found him to be a delinquent, the juvenile equivalent of a guilty plea.

Sims scheduled a hearing this month on where to place the teen. Until then, the teen remains in the Allen County Juvenile Justice Center. The juvenile justice system only has custody over delinquents until they turn 18 and jurisdiction for continued monitoring and treatment until they turn 21, according to testimony.

Allen County Chief Deputy Prosecutor Michael McAlexander said he understood Sims’ decision, particularly because it was so difficult to show the boy was beyond rehabilitation in the juvenile system because he’d never been in trouble before.

He said he remains concerned about the future safety of the community, something he admits is difficult to quantify.

“We certainly respect the judge’s decision and are pleased that the juvenile admitted to the most serious allegations against him,” McAlexander said.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on September 16, 2010 09:09 AM
Posted to Ind. Trial Ct. Decisions