DA seeks to try 16-year-old suspect as adult in fatal shooting of 14-year-old girl
The Stanislaus County District Attorney’s Office is seeking a transfer to adult criminal court for a 16-year-old boy who is accused of shooting into a car full of teens and a child, killing one.
A conviction of murder in criminal versus juvenile court means a difference of decades of incarceration.
The boy, along with two adults, is charged with murder, three counts of attempted murder and shooting at an occupied vehicle. He also faces enhancements alleging he personally discharged a firearm.
Modesto Police say all three suspects, who were loitering in front of a home on Oak Street, fired at four people in a vehicle after they turned around at a dead end on the street just after midnight on Dec. 26.
Maria Juarez, 14, died at the scene; an 18-year-old woman and a 16-year-old boy were wounded and an 11-year-old girl escaped injury.
The teen, whose name is being withheld because he is a minor, along with Damon Lee Morrison, 21, and Angelo Keo, 24, were arrested last month.
Authorities say the shooting was associated with, and motivated by, gang activity involving members and associates of the Valley Boyz Crips criminal street gang. The victims were not associated with a gang.
The 16-year-old’s father, James T. Jones told The Bee his son is innocent and that he was celebrating Christmas with extended family not in the vicinity of where the shooting occurred.
“He wasn’t there. There is video of him not being there,” James T. Jones said by telephone. “I just don’t want my son being the scapegoat for something.”
During a hearing on Tuesday Stanislaus Juvenile Court Judge Rubén Villalobos scheduled a transfer hearing for the teen to begin April 15.
Prior to a voter-approved law passed in November 2016, prosecutors could “direct file” on minors, charging and prosecuting them as adults for certain violent crimes. Now a hearing must be held and a judge decides if the minor should be transferred out of juvenile court.
During a transfer hearing the judge considers the the circumstances and gravity of the offense and degree of criminal sophistication exhibited by the minor; whether he can be rehabilitated prior to the expiration of the juvenile court’s jurisdiction; his delinquent history and any previously successful rehabilitation attempts.
If the teen remains in juvenile court and is convicted of murder he wouldn’t be incarcerated much past the age of 25, based on the polices of the Division of Juvenile Justice, which houses people convicted of committing crimes as juveniles.
If he is convicted of murder as an adult he could be sentenced to life in prison. However, due to recent case law and legislation, all youthful offenders with life sentences must have the opportunity for parole after their 25th year of incarceration.
This story was originally published February 4, 2021 at 3:05 PM.
