MIAMI - A 14-year-old student was indicted as an adult on a first-degree murder charge Wednesday in the slashing death of a friend in a school lavatory.
The charge against Michael Hernandez means he must receive a sentence of life without parole if convicted of killing Jaime Rodrigo Gough, an eighth-grade classmate at Southwood Middle School in the Miami suburb of Palmetto Bay. The state does not execute murderers who committed the crime when younger than 17.
Jaime, 14, was jabbed with a serrated knife and bled to death before help arrived Feb. 3. Hernandez signed a confession after the knife was found in his backpack.
"This case is a very serious case," said Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle. She said the indictment alleged premeditation.
Some have advocated changing the law to give judges discretion in sentencing young killers.
More officials removed in wake of teen's jail death
TALLAHASSEE - The Department of Juvenile Justice removed three officials Wednesday as part of an overhaul spurred by the death of a teenager who didn't get treatment for a burst appendix while in custody.
The department removed Division Chief Bill Fine, Regional Director Ron Fryer and Assistant Secretary Larry Lumpee - the No. 3 person at the department. Secretary Bill Bankhead, in a letter to Gov. Jeb Bush, also listed several other changes planned statewide and at the Miami-Dade Regional Juvenile Detention Center, where 17-year-old Omar Paisley died in June 2003.
The department's inspector general expects to complete an investigation into the death by the end of the month.
Bush spokesman Jacob DiPietre said the governor applauds the changes and "expects further action once the inspector general's report is finalized."
The moves come less than a week after the head of the juvenile prison, George LaFlam, resigned.
Last month nurses Gaile Tucker Loperfido and Dianne Marie Demeritte were charged with third-degree murder and child abuse manslaughter for allegedly skipping examinations or falsifying Paisley's medical records. Bankhead terminated the facility's contract with Miami Children's Hospital, which provided medical services for the 226-bed facility.
Developmentally disabled program reverses losses
TALLAHASSEE - A rate change for developmentally disabled services has turned around a potential $30-million deficit and the program may end up $20-million ahead this year, Department of Children and Families Secretary Jerry Regier said Wednesday.
DCF adjusted its rate for services in November, limiting providers to a 5 percent increase after learning it was being billed as much as 158 percent more for residential habilitation services and adult day training programs.
Regier said records since the rate change show the department should no longer overspend on developmentally disabled programs, which have run a deficit of about $20-million a year the past three years.
He said he wants to continue tracking service costs before deciding whether more people could be served. He also noted that service providers are challenging the rate adjustment and if they win, there will be no extra money.
Former aide to governor helping restructure NYSE
TALLAHASSEE - Kathleen Shanahan, former chief of staff for Gov. Jeb Bush, is helping revamp the New York Stock Exchange.
Shanahan has been working with John Thain, the new chief executive operator of the stock exchange, on the transition to new management after Richard Grasso, the former head of the exchange, resigned last year in the midst of a salary and bonus scandal.
Shanahan has also taken a job as managing director in New York for Public Strategies, a company based in Austin, Texas that provides strategic advice to companies. The NYSE will become a client of the firm.
She has also been appointed a director of WCI Communities, a Florida development company owned by Al Hoffman, a Bush family friend who has spearheaded fundraising efforts for the governor, his brother, father and the National Republican Committee.
