The attorney for an eighth-grader accused of first-degree murder says the boy's statement was obtained without advice from counsel.
By Associated Press
Published May 11, 2004
MIAMI - The attorney for a teenager charged with killing a friend at school plans to ask to have his confession thrown out, saying Monday his parents were barred from the police interview and he had no attorney present at the time.
Attorney Richard Rosenbaum made that announcement after a judge rejected his request to dismiss the first-degree murder indictment of 14-year-old Michael Hernandez.
"We don't believe that he validly waived his rights," Rosenbaum said.
Hernandez is accused of stabbing and slashing fellow eighth-grader Jaime Gough in a middle school restroom before classes Feb. 3. If convicted as an adult, he faces a mandatory life sentence without parole.
Hernandez wrote a journal depicting himself as an aspiring serial killer and outlined eight steps for killing two friends in the restroom on his 14th birthday.
Hernandez spent most of the 25-minute hearing staring straight ahead from the jury box. A defense psychologist sat with him. Hernandez shook hands with Rosenbaum when he walked in but said little to his team.
In an indication he is leaning toward an insanity defense, Rosenbaum told Circuit Judge Henry Leyte-Vidal that prosecutors were "starting to see there's some type of (mental) disturbance going on here." But prosecutor Gail Levine said she resented the remark and added, "We see nothing wrong with this defendant."
Rosenbaum also complained to the judge that he was being "jerked around" by prosecutors and police because so little information has been turned over to the defense.
The judge said reports take time. Without setting a timetable, he said he would step in if discovery delays become unreasonable.
