5. May 2010 by admin.

Nearly a year ago, 13-year-old Danny Gudino shot his 9-year-old brother to death, and his mother, who survived, in a Colorado Springs’ suburb. Why did Danny commit such an unspeakable crime?  By all accounts he was a normal, everyday  kid. No problem behaviors at school.  He came from a seemingly loving family.

What would cause Danny to rise from his bed, shoot his sleeping brother, then turn a rifle on his mom, only to cry immediately after, “I’m so sorry.”

Because Danny Gudino was only 13 when he pulled the trigger, the court is interested in “why.”  Had Danny been a few months older, 14-years-old to be exact, no one but his defense team and his family would have been seeking an explanation. Danny would have been charged as an adult and would right now be readying for a trial whose outcome would have resulted in decades or life in prison.  (Since over 90% of trials result in convictions, it’s pretty much a given that Danny would NOT have been found innocent.)

A few months older and Danny’s fate would have been solely in the hands of district attorneys, who make their decisions whether to try children in the juvenile or adult court, in 72 hours or less.

That process is called “direct file.”  Instead, Danny is being allowed a “transfer hearing.” In a hearing that will last longer than many of the trials where Colorado juveniles have been convicted and sentenced to life behind bars, a judge will hear all the evidence from all sides. Afterward, he will decide whether Danny is to be tried as a juvenile where he can get treatment and will be released after 7 years – or enter the adult system and  endure decades of  hard time.

Who would YOU rather have determine the fate of a child — a prosecutor whose job it is to prosecute or a judge who is charged to impartially weigh all the facts and then reach a decision?

A new bill, Colorado HB-1413, will narrow the offenses for which prosecutors can directly file juveniles as adults. HB-1413 will provide transparency – guidelines DAs have to follow when pondering the fate of the accused, will lengthen the time from 72 hours to two weeks before a decision can be made to direct file, narrow the range of chargeable offenses, and will offer the alternative of the Youthful Offender System to a wider variety of youth. The bill has received bi-partisan support, and has been endorsed by most District Attorneys and our former DA Governor.

It’s a good start, though there are some important exceptions. Fourteen and 15-year-olds charged with murder or sexual offenses can still be directly filed into the adult system.

And, boy, do I have a problem with that.  In the first place, a serious offense like homicide cries for explanation, which would mean an intensive investigation. You can’t do that within 3 days – which, even under this new bill, will still be the norm. And while sexual crimes conjure images of wild-eyed 15-year-olds raping babies or a host of innocent schoolmates, the “crime” can simply be sex between two consenting teens. After being found out by angry parents, the frightened daughter says, “I didn’t do anything me. He forced me.” And her boyfriend is charged with rape.

Homicide and sexual offenses can consign a youth to prison for life so why give that decision to a prosecutor who can’t fully investigate the circumstances of the crime in two weeks, let alone 72 hours? Shouldn’t such cases, where a juvenile’s future hangs in the balance, be the kind that that most strongly merit a transfer hearing? All the facts.  All the psychiatric and psychological reports. All the experts to give an answer to what made this kid snap. And why or why not this teen can be redeemed.  What is wrong with hearing all relevant evidence before making a decision? Prosecutors like to say they weigh three factors when making the decision whether to direct file–  what’s best for the victim and/or his family, the safety of the community and what’s best for the defendant.

They can’t know that within a few days.  Furthermore, when is being thrown into adult prison with murderers, rapists and predators EVER best for a juvenile defendant?

Do I even have to mention that crimes involving death and/or sexual offenses invariably merit  front page headlines?  And no DA , particularly in Focus on the Family Colorado Springs, ever won re-election for being soft-on-crime. Can’t remember the time when, following a tragedy that led all the local news shows, a prosecutor said, “We’ll have a transfer hearing.” “We’ll try this kid as a juvenile.” Just doesn’t happen.

And the only reason it will happen in Danny Gudino’s case is because prosecutors can’t throw him into the adult system. He’s too young. They MUST have a hearing.

So explain this to me:

Why did it take the defense and prosecutors a year to gather evidence about a thirteen-year-old’s  state of mind, about the crime, about  his motivation –  while it only  takes a DA  a handful of hours to gather all that evidence for the same crime if the kid is 14-15-16 or 17-year’s old?

This is not justice.

Sitting in the courtroom today watching Danny was very painful. Nearly two decades ago I sat in a similar courtroom when Jacob Ind, barely 15, was charged as an adult for the deaths of his parents.

Where was the investigation for Jacob? Why, when his older brother said immediately after the murders, that he didn’t blame his brother and there were “secrets” in the house, didn’t prosecutors investigate to uncover those secrets?

Today, Danny’s defense spoke of his family having a history of sleep disorders, of mental illness.  Jacob didn’t sleep for three weeks straight before the murders, lost 18 pounds in a matter of days and was demonstrably psychotic. Not too hard to find that out. Just talk to Jacob’s classmates.

Didn’t happen. Immediately, Jacob was charged as an adult, was positioned firmly on the path  that inexorably led to his conviction and a mandatory life without parole prison sentence .

Worst of all, when Jacob was charged, Colorado still operated an extremely successful  treatment facility for youth who had committed similar crimes. At the Closed Adolescent Treatment Center, kids like Jacob received intensive help, rather than incarceration, and upon release, disappeared into middle-class suburbia where they got married, raised families, paid their taxes and were allowed some modest version of the American dream.

Treatment was a viable alternative for Jacob, and a few years previously, when we still believed in rehabilitation, would have been the norm.  Caught up in that dark time of the 1990’s Jacob never had a chance. Redemption was never an option, not for Jacob or  hundreds of other Colorado teens, victims of our fear of pint-sized super-predators who never materialized.

Now we’re living with the detritus:  tens of millions of dollars spent on prison cells for kids who could have been rehabilitated, who deserved something – if only a transfer hearing before a judge – before being consigned to the living hell that is our justice system.

 HB 1413 is a start. But it’s not nearly enough.

Posted in Legal News, Prison Reform Advocates, Juvenile Reform Advocates, Juvenile Offenders | Print | No Comments »

30. March 2009 by admin.

Every year the Office of Juvenile Justice and Deliquency Prevention posts their annual report for the previous year.  The link is listed below.  Despite budget cuts and funding battles, this office continues to try and make an impact on our communities and in the lives of juvenile.  Thank you!

Annual Report Describes OJJDP’s Efforts on Behalf of Youth The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) has released its 2008 Annual Report. The report provides information on OJJDP’s activities in fiscal year 2008 to promote early intervention and delinquency prevention, support faith-based and community organizations, expand mentoring, improve the juvenile justice system, ensure public safety, curb child exploitation, combat youth gangs, and serve tribal youth. The report concludes with an overview of the Office’s information dissemination efforts. Resources: To access OJJDP’s 2008 Annual Report, visit http://www.ojjdp.ncjrs.gov/publications/PubAbstract.asp?pubi=247013. The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention is a component of the Office of Justice Programs in the U.S. Department of Justice.

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9. March 2009 by admin.

MARCH 06, 2009

Eleven year old charged as an adult
by Pat Nolan
Would you put this 11 year old in prison for the rest of his life?

Prosecutors in Pennsylvania have charged an 11-year-old boy as an adult for
murdering his father’s girlfriend. They said that they intend to ask that he
be imprisoned for the rest of his life under Pennsylvania’s Juvenile Life
Without the Possibility of Parole (LWOP) statute. Let me be clear: what the
boy did is awful, and there should be consequences for it. But those
consequences should include reforming his moral compass, rather than writing
him off as unsalvageable. Putting him in an adult prison for the rest of his
life is essentially denying the young boy the possibility of redemption and
rehabilitation.

It surprises most people to realize that in forty-two states and under
federal law, a child under 18 who commits a serious crime is classified as
an adult for prosecution and punishment. In some states, children as young
as ten are transformed instantly into adults for criminal justice purposes.
Remember, these children are too young to buy cigarettes and alcohol, too
young to shave, often too young to drive. Many of these kids still have
stuffed animals on their beds. Yet, they are tried as adults, and if
convicted, they are sent to adult prison, often for life without any
possibility of parole.

There are currently at least 2,225 people incarcerated in the United States
who are imprisoned for the rest of their lives for crimes they committed as
children. These are not “super-predators” with long records of vicious
crimes. In fact, an estimated 59 percent of these youngsters received the
sentence for their first-ever criminal conviction.

The crime this boy committed was horrible. He hid a shotgun under a blanket
and calmly walked downstairs and shot his father’s girlfriend in the back of
her head. This is a shocking crime. But it was also his first run-in with
the law. Despite his clean record, state law requires that he be charged as
an adult. And the District Attorney said he expects the boy to spend the
rest of his life in prison.

Remember, this is an 11-year-old child. Yet he was imprisoned in the local
jail with other adults. The jail had no orange jumpsuit that could fit his
slight frame. To isolate him from the adult prisoners, the boy was held in a
10×10 cell. He could not take a shower because that would require the jail
to lock down every prisoner to allow him to walk to the showers without
coming in contact with the adult prisoners. Mercifully, after several days
the sheriff insisted that the boy’s needs be taken care of, and he was
transferred to a juvenile facility.

This brief bit of common sense and mercy may soon be eliminated by a justice
system intent on keeping him in prison until he dies.

You can hear the cry of frustration in the voice of a father facing a
similar future with a child in an adult prison:

I’m a former cop.  I’m a true believer in law and order.  But my son was a
child when this happened.  He wasn’t thinking like an adult, and he wasn’t
an adult…how is it that the law can treat him as if he is one?

– Frank C., father of youth offender sentenced to live without parole,
October 22, 2004.

The terrible crimes committed by children can ruin lives, causing injury and
death to the victims and grief to their families and friends. Sentencing
must reflect the seriousness of the crime, but it also must acknowledge that
culpability can be substantially diminished by reason of the youth and
immaturity of the perpetrator. Child offenders should be given the
possibility of freedom one day when they have matured and demonstrated their
remorse and capacity for rehabilitation.

There is a movement across the country to eliminate life sentences for
youthful offenders. The bills would not automatically release the offenders
at a certain age, but rather offer the possibility that they could be
released if they had shown they were prepared to lead a law-abiding life in
the community.

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4. March 2009 by admin.

My name is Bettyanne. My son, Nathan, is serving an LWOP for a crime he was convicted of as a juvenile.

I most definitely agree with you that the only effective way to end this is through legislation at the federal level.

Nathan, who is a gifted and articulate writer, has also been involved in letter writing. His letters express his thoughts and perspective of this issue from a juvenile’s mindset. He is not seeking pity, or expecting to avoid any consequences. He shares how he thought at that time, and how incredibly naive and immature he was to comprehend his actions. He also was in a total fog during his trial, as his defense did not have the patience or skills to properly communicate to someone so young exactly what was happening. I was led to believe by his attorney that he was carefully explaining everything to Nathan. That was just not so. I was not permitted to discuss anything concerning his case to him, as all our conversations were being recorded. It was a horrible situation all the way around.

When Nathan received his sentence, he was put in a padded cell to cry and grieve by himself for days, of which I knew nothing of. Then before I knew it, they transferred him to several different prisons over the next 6 months and would not tell me of his location. During this time they also with held all his out going mail. It was a long, long time before I was able to know where he was. It would be a whole year before I actually got to see my boy again!

One time he was crying so hard, the guard kept telling him to shut up. He explained he just couldn’t stop crying. So the guard told him he would come in and talk with him. Instead, 4 guards rushed in at him, put him in a straight jacket without telling him and of course Nathan resisted, then they sprayed his eyes with mace. Yes, our country takes real good care of it’s troubled youth.

Posted in Juvenile Reform Advocates, From Families of Juvenile Offenders | Print | No Comments »

4. December 2008 by admin.

“The Children all nestled and snug in their beds while visions of sugar plums dance in their heads……”  Santa Claus is coming and children everywhere are making their Christmas wish lists and dreaming of the day to come when wonderful presents are piled under the Christmas tree.

Except for one little boy in Arizona who spends his days in a juvenile detention facility charged with the murder of his father and his fathers best friend.  Many of us who advocate for juvenile justice see this case as the epitome of the flaws in our juvenile justice system.  There are so many flaws in this case that we don’t even know how they can move forward with this case…….yet they are. 

Let us begin with the CLEAR FACT that this 8 year old boy does not know the difference between real and make believe.  Santa Claus, Superman, the tooth faerie and all other make believe characters are as real to him as the postman, the neighbor or his mom.  And pretending to be someone else, engaging in make believe scenarios or any other type of fantasy is part of his every day world.  Yet they interrogated him and believed he was responsible for this act of violence.  The interrogation process is under much scrutiny by human rights and child rights activists.  The practices used by the interrogating officers was questionable at best.  Leading questions presented to an 8 year old boy to bring about their desired result. 

What disturbs me the most is that the officers and investigators in charge, CHOSE, to believe and PERSUE this avenue by arresting and charging this young boy.  Of course I am not privy to the case work and I do not know the evidence they are basing their assumption on.  However, I do know that once they have a suspect (no matter the age) in custody, they will not willingly back down no matter the cost.  Even if it costs this young man his future and life.

I cannot imagine the torture and pain that his mother is experiencing.  Knowing that her little boy is being held in a juvenile detention facility, mostly isolated from other human beings (that in itself a torture that should not be allowed) and left all alone in a very frightening world.  If this young man and his mother had no other traumatic issues in their lives, they will be forever scared by this.  No matter if this young man is innocent or not, this experience will forever shape him.  He will never be the same…..  How can we justify this action against a child…..and call ourselves the leader of nations? 

Below is the latest update. 

Plea deal offered to 8-year-old murder suspect

BOB CHRISTIE | November 30, 2008 |

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PHOENIX — Prosecutors have offered a plea deal to an 8-year-old boy charged with murder in the shooting deaths of his father and another man in their eastern Arizona home, court records show.

Complete details of the offer weren’t spelled out in a court filing posted Saturday on the Apache County Superior Court’s Web site.

But County Attorney Criss Candelaria wrote that he has “tendered a plea offer to the juvenile’s attorneys that would resolve all the charges in the juvenile court contingent on the results of the mental health evaluations.”

Candelaria was responding to a defense motion seeking to block him from dropping one of two first-degree murder charges the boy faces in the deaths of his father, Vincent Romero, 29, and Timothy Romans, 39, earlier this month.

Defense attorney Benjamin Brewer argued in a filing Tuesday that prosecutors wanted the charge dismissed so they could refile it when the boy was older and pursue case in adult court.

Defense attorney Benjamin Brewer argued in a filing Tuesday that prosecutors wanted the charge dismissed so they could refile it when the boy was older and pursue case in adult court.

The prosecutor explained in his response to Brewer’s opposition filing that he wasn’t trying to obtain an unfair advantage, but he pressed for the dismissal because the judicial system isn’t equipped to deal with an 8-year-old charged with murder.

“It is done to ensure that the juvenile and the two murder victims in this case do not fall through the cracks in the system that might occur if both charges remain in the pending delinquency petition,” Candelaria wrote.

Candelaria explained that the boy could be found incompetent to stand trial, and if that happened, the court’s options would be limited.

The court would be required to order efforts to restore the boy to competency, but if that couldn’t be done within about eight months, the judge would be required by law to dismiss the criminal case and bar it from being refiled.

The court would then be required to initiate civil commitment proceedings, Candelaria wrote. If the boy is found incompetent because of his age, he wouldn’t fit the definition of a mentally disordered person and no treatment would be available.

“Such a result denies the victims and public of any sense of justice for these heinous murders,” Candelaria wrote. “It also denies the juvenile the rehabilitative services that he apparently needs to both deal with why he was capable of committing these murders and to assist him with the grief and remorse that he is probably feeling.”

Police in St. Johns found Romero and Romans shot to death after the boy ran to a neighbor’s house on Nov. 5. The boy was questioned after Romans’ wife raised suspicions about him the next day, and in a videotape released by prosecutors, he admits pulling the trigger. Both men were shot several times with a .22-caliber rifle.

Romans worked with Romero and rented a room in his home.

Police reports say the boy told a state Child Protective Services worker that his 1,000th spanking would be his last.

The boy is being held in a county juvenile facility, although he was allowed to spend Thanksgiving with his mother.

Brewer said the boy is back in custody. The next court hearing is set for Dec. 8.

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