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Associated PressLionel Tate, who killed a 6-year-old, was freed on a plea deal eight months ago. Now he's accused of violating his probation.
MIAMI - Lionel Tate, the youngest child in modern U.S. history to be sentenced to life in prison, went before a judge Wednesday on a charge that he violated probation eight months after being freed in the killing of a 6-year-old family friend.
Tate, now 17, was placed under court supervision for 11 years in January after going free on a second-degree murder plea deal after his first-degree murder conviction was overturned.
He was taken into custody Tuesday, four days after giving a false name to Broward County sheriff's deputies when he was stopped about two blocks from home carrying a pocketknife with a 4-inch blade.
A judge had warned Tate in January that he risked returning to prison if he violated probation. State law gives the judge the discretion to put the teenager behind bars again for anywhere from a few days to life.
"It appears that he didn't commit a crime or anything. He was out of the house," Henry Hunter, an attorney for Tate's mother, said Wednesday. "I think this is something we can deal with. I don't think this is an outright violation."
Wearing an orange jail jumpsuit, Tate appeared before Judge Kathleen Ireland on a video hookup from jail to be formally informed of the charge that he violated probation by carrying a weapon and leaving his house. No future hearing dates were set. Tate remained in jail without bail.
Ken Padowitz, Tate's trial prosecutor and now an attorney for the victim's mother, Deweese Eunick-Paul, said she was "very saddened" to hear the news. "He was given a second bite of the apple that his victim Tiffany never received," Padowitz said.
Tate was 12 in 1999 when he killed Tiffany Eunick, whom his mother was babysitting.
He initially claimed he accidentally killed the girl while imitating professional wrestling moves he had seen on television. But prosecutors said the girl was brutally beaten to death.
Tate was convicted of first-degree murder in 2001. He served three years of a mandatory life sentence before a state appeals court erased his conviction and sentence because his mental competency had not been evaluated before trial. That cleared the way for the plea deal allowing his release from prison based on the three years he had already served.
In January, he was placed on house arrest for a year to be followed by 10 years' probation under conditions that require him with few exceptions to stay within feet of his front door, not carry any weapons and be honest with law enforcement. He also was ordered to complete 1,000 hours of community service and receive regular counseling.
Circuit Judge Joel Lazarus told Tate then that one violation of the agreement would send him back to prison.
Tate was out with an 18-year-old friend at 2:20 a.m. Friday, when millions of people on Florida's east coast were hunkered down in anticipation of Hurricane Frances, Broward sheriff's deputies said.
The teens were walking near Tate's Pembroke Park home, sweating and panting as though they had been running, deputies said. The pair said they had been "chasing girls" but deputies didn't see any in the area.
Deputies said Tate gave them a false name. He consented to a search, and deputies found the knife and an identification with his real name.
County records showed that Tate's companion, Selford Muir, had seven prior arrests.
Tate had been otherwise complying with probation rules, getting his high school diploma from a military academy in July, performing nearly double the number of community service hours required this year and living with his mother as required, according to the probation violation report.
Florida authorities are taking a harsher approach to probation violators since ex-convicts on probation have been charged in the kidnapping and slaying of 11-year-old Carlie Brucia in Sarasota in February and the slayings of six people at a Deltona home last month.