Posted on 05/09/2008 9:53:45 AM PDT by hoppity
The arraignment of 14-year-old Brandon McInerney, accused of shooting an Oxnard schoolmate in the head, was postponed again Thursday and rescheduled for June.
Ventura County Superior Court Judge Kevin McGee granted the delay requested by McInerney's lawyer William "Willy" Quest.
Earlier, Quest said in an interview that he is working on a legal motion attacking the constitutionality of trying his client as an adult. The attorney said it will be a "very in-depth" legal issue pertaining to serious constitutional matters.
Quest wants time to prepare and submit his legal motion before his client is arraigned
McInerney made a brief court appearance Thursday. He remains in custody in Juvenile Hall.
He is accused of shooting Larry King, 15, in the head about 8:30 a.m. Feb. 12 in Room 42 of E.O. Green School in Oxnard, where students were working on English assignments. King, who sometimes wore lipstick, told friends he was gay.
Outside the courtroom, Quest declined to elaborate on his reasons for believing his constitutional challenge would be successful. Many states have similar laws allowing authorities to try juveniles as adults in cases involving allegations of serious felony crimes.
"I'll let the motion speak for itself," Quest said.
McGee set the arraignment for June 12.
Quest, who spoke to reporters after his client's court appearance, works at the county Public Defender's Office.
"The fact that we think that Brandon should be tried as a juvenile doesn't diminish the tragedy that happened on February 12," the attorney said. He also noted that his client turned 14 years old on Jan. 24 — "less than three weeks before February 12," he said — and that if his client had been 13 years old when the shooting occurred, by law he couldn't have been tried as adult.
Quest said he plans to provide more information, including that his client has no prior criminal record, to the district attorney's office so it can reconsider trying McInerney in juvenile court.
In an interview earlier Thursday, Senior Deputy District Attorney Maeve Fox said the district attorney is still prosecuting the case in adult court but that could change.
"As this case progresses, we are going to continue to keep our minds open about what the appropriate disposition is," said Fox.
"As an adult (defendant), there is such a wide range of discretion that we can exercise," she said. "As a juvenile, if we sent him back to juvenile court, basically, he is going to get out when he is 21. That's one of the factors we're looking at."
Fox said, theoretically, he can be locked up until his 25th birthday, but state juvenile detention facilities are so overcrowded that McInerney would be let out earlier.
Quest said: "We disagree with that (Fox's) contention."
Fox said prosecutors must decide what is an appropriate punishment and the taking of responsibility by McInerney for his actions.
"We don't know enough about him right now to necessarily make the decision that he belongs in juvenile court. The law gives us the authority to try him as an adult," Fox said. "Right now, as it stands today, he is being filed on as an adult."
Quest told reporters that his client has community support in his efforts to get his case transferred to juvenile court.
Quest said he is "very happy" that a host of gay- and lesbian-rights groups issued a statement last month calling for McInerney's case to be moved to the juvenile criminal justice system.
Quest also said an "amazing thing" is that 130 of McInerney's schoolmates have signed a petition asking the district attorney to transfer the case to juvenile court. Quest said half of the faculty at E.O. Green School also signed a similar petition.
Quest said school officials should be held accountable because "there was an environment that was allowed to fester, so to speak." The school district has called such allegations untrue.
"It is possible that people were aware of it, complained about it, and the door was shut," Quest said. "The information that we have is that this possibly could have been stopped."
Also on Thursday, the judge ordered that McInerney be allowed to get a haircut and get visitations from his 5-year-old brother.
Quest explained that because McInerney is a juvenile, court orders are needed for the haircut and the visitations. He said a court order will also be needed so McInerney can get visits from another brother.
"He has another brother serving in Iraq (who) comes back this month, we hope," said Quest.
It’d be nice if you could go after the parents as well.
Do an adult crime. Serve adult time.
I’m one of those who left a comment at the site. I truly think this is a case where the victim was encouraged to be himself. The shooter of course did know right from wrong, but how often was he harassed by the victim? If he was; I suppose it will all come out. And why was it okay?
I think there is more than one victim here.
I don’t disagree with you. I think there are some administrators from the school who are a little nervous right now.
Amazing that this article makes no mention of the victim’s condition. I’m assuming he survived, since there’s no mention of this being a murder case, but getting shot in the head generally leaves permanent and serious damage. Do you happen to know?
I know you are not directing this to me. The victim is dead.
The victim died from gunshot wounds. The victim lived in a group home, was “openly gay”, and kept harrassing the suspect for a sexual relationship.
I don’t post to FR much anymore for a variety of reasons, one is the gay issue and I understand. It was so easy for the DA to call this a hate crime. I posted earlier to the star site; the administrators didn’t know what was going on?? Give me a break. And I’m not saying Brandon was correct in what he did but how they could not know there were serious issues with his family is beyond me.
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