Don’t try Fil-Am murder suspect as an adult, say his lawyers
Teenage rape-murder suspect Adrian Gonzalez being arraigned in Santa Cruz, California. TWITTER
SANTA CRUZ, California — Dressed in a green T-shirt and khaki pants for minor detainees while flanked by his lawyers, 15-year-old Filipino American Adrian Jerry “AJ” Gonzalez was brought to court yesterday, September 21, to be arraigned.
As youth advocates and his lawyers argued that Gonzalez should not be tried as an adult, the 8-year-old victim’s family and friends struggled to banish anger and to find forgiveness for him.
Gonzalez remained quiet, had his face down most of the time, and only looked briefly at the judge to answer questions.
Gonzalez’s lawyer Leila Sayar entered a plea of “not guilty” on his behalf to charges that included the murder of 8-year-old Madyson “Maddy” Middleton. Sayar and Larry Biggam of Biggam, Christensen and Minsloff represented Gonzalez.
The 8-year-old victim, Madyson “Maddy” Middleton was raped and murdered.
Gonzalez is also facing felony charges of kidnapping to commit another crime, sexual penetration by a foreign object, two counts of forcible lewd acts on a child and forcible rape on a child under 14 years, among others.
If found guilty of the charges as an adult, Gonzalez could face a sentence of life imprisonment.
Gonzalez caught glimpses of the rally staged by Middleton supporters as he was being brought to the courtroom of Santa Cruz County Superior Court Judge Timony Volkmann.
Outside the court, defense attorney Sayar maintains that her client should be granted a special fitness hearing focusing on his background and circumstances to determine if he should instead be kept in the juvenile court system. If convicted in that court, he would be freed within a decade.
“This incident has resulted in the tragic loss of two kids from our community,” Sayar rued.
A youth advocacy group also believed that a fitness hearing should first be conducted on the accused since the 15-year-old teen charged as an adult for the killing of an 8-year-old neighbor may be too young to understand what he is accused of doing.
Entrance to the Tannery Performing Arts Center in Santa Cruz where the suspect and the victim were neighbors. PHOTO BY JUN NUCUM
They contend that the district attorney should have asked a judge whether suspect Adrian Jerry Gonzalez is fit to stand trial as an adult and possibly subjected to lengthier, more severe penalties than he would as a juvenile.
“There’s a lot of public horror about what allegedly happened, but we don’t really know very much. This is unfolding very quickly, and the prosecutor made the decision without knowing much about the motive,” said Sue Burrell, an attorney with the Youth Law Center based in San Francisco.
Gonzalez who was described by neighbors as an all-around nice kid and yo-yo expert could only face a confinement in a youth facility until he turns 23 if tried as a juvenile. He would also not be eligible for the death penalty under a 2005 U.S. Supreme Court ruling.
At the rally outside the court, Maddy Middleton’s father, Michael, asked that the attention remain focused on Maddy the victim and not on AJ the accused.
“I think that Madyson would want it to be this way. She’d want me not to have hatred and anger. Hopefully people will find love, compassion and forgiveness in all this,” Michael Middleton told reporters.
Last August 23, Sunday, more than a thousand gathered at the Kaiser Permanente basketball arena to laugh, cry and howl like wolves to celebrate the life and spirit of Madyson “Maddy” Middleton.
“Even though she’s not with us physically, she will always be with us,” Maddy’s mother, Laura Jordan, said during the hour-long memorial.
Dried wreaths of flowers that had been hung as a memorial to Maddy Middleton. PHOTO BY JUN NUCUM
Maddy was reported missing by her mom on July 26 and was last seen in a surveillance closed-circuit television video riding her scooter at the Tannery Arts Center housing complex for artists and their families in the beach city of Santa Cruz where the victim and the accused are neighbors.
Maddy’s body was discovered inside a recycling bin the following night after an extensive search.
Police claimed that Gonzalez lured Maddy with ice cream into his mom’s apartment where she was allegedly tied and beaten up, raped and then dumped into a nearby recycling bin.
She was believed to have died of positional asphyxiation. Her neck also sustained stab wounds.
He was ordered to re-appear in court on October 29.
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