Third Stanislaus County juvenile charged with murder in past month. Is this a trend?
The 13-year-old boy accused of killing the owner of a food truck in Modesto’s airport neighborhood made his first court appearance Friday.
He became the third juvenile charged with murder in Stanislaus County in the past month, which is more than the past three years combined.
“We remain deeply concerned over the number of homicides that we have received over the last month,” Stanislaus County Chief Probation Officer Mark Ferriera said in an email. “This is an issue that we are closely monitoring.”
No juveniles were charged with murder in 2019 or 2020 and one was charged with murder in 2018, he said.
But since Jan. 20, 2021 three boys have been charged in three separate homicides.
A 16-year-old, along with two adults, is charged with murder and three counts of attempted murder. He and the adults are accused of firing into a vehicle carrying three teens and a 11-year-old on Dec. 26. All but the youngest child was hit and 14-year-old Maria Juarez died.
A 17-year-old is charged with murder and possession of an assault rifle. He is accused of killing Alexis Perez, 26, who on Jan. 21 was found inside a vehicle in Ceres suffering from multiple gunshots. He died at a hospital later that day
The 13-year-old is charged with first-degree murder and faces enhancement for using a firearm and acting with premeditation in the death of 67-year-old Rafael Avila-Rodriguez. Police said Kuykendall walked up to the Mexican food truck next to the Airport Market, shot the victim, then ran away.
The Stanislaus County district attorney is seeking to prosecute the 16- and 17-year-olds as adults, which would likely mean many more years of incarceration if convicted. The process required a transfer hearing in which evidence is presented about the nature of the crime, the juvenile’s criminal history and his likelihood of rehabilitation. The Juvenile court judge decides whether the defendant should remain in there or be transferred to adult criminal court.
The 13-year-old is not eligible for transfer to adult court because of his age. Under California law, juveniles under the age of 16 cannot be tried as adults or face adult sentences. The Division of Juvenile Justice holds juvenile offenders only up to the age of 25.
The 13-year-old’s hearing on Friday was an arraignment, but his attorney, Alonzo Gradford, said he needed more time to review police reports and obtain surveillance footage from the DA’s Office before he entered a plea. The arraignment was continued to next week.
All three juvenile murder cases involve guns, and Ferriera said there has been an uptick in juvenile bookings related to gun possession but not an overall increase in juvenile crime.
“The overall number of juvenile citations and bookings that we have received is not indicative of any spikes or upward trends in juvenile crime. However, the homicide bookings that we have recently received is certainly alarming and something that bears monitoring,” he said.
In 2017, seven juveniles were charged with murder stemming from four homicides.
Ferriera said each case was very different and five juveniles were charged in connection with two homicides. He said there was nothing that could be attributed to that increase in juvenile murder defendants that year either.
However, 2017 was an especially deadly year in Stanislaus County, with 49 homicides, the highest number in more than a decade, according to records compiled by The Bee.
This story was originally published February 22, 2021 at 4:00 AM.
