On Monday, a judge in Jacksonville, Fla., set February 27, 2012, as the trial date for the youngest person ever to be charged as an adult with first-degree murder in that city.
Fernandez is accused of pushing his 2-year-old brother David so violently into a bookshelf that the youngster never woke up and could not be saved by the time he got to the hospital.
He’s 12 and could spend life in prison for the murder. GOOD I say, there are far too many good people in the world for us to get bent out of shape over damaged goods like him.
Fernandez’ mother, who was 12 years old when she became pregnant with Cristian, is also being held in prison without bond. She’s charged with aggravated manslaughter of a child, culpable negligence, because an investigation by police of her laptop shows a Google search for “when some (sic) gets knocked out” at 10:54 a.m. Then “concussions on children” at 2:38 p.m.
Those searches were followed by activity checking the family bank account, downloading of music, and then, finally, at 3:07 p.m., the first search for the location of “St. Luke’s Hospital, Jacksonville, Florida.”
A doctor at the time told detectives that had the 2-year-old been rushed to the hospital immediately, he could have been saved.
Mom was apperently aware and concerned about the event…but not concerned enough to…well DO anything.
Hey but no gun death here, so it isn’t THAT bad, is it?
h/t Barron
“He’s 12 and could spend life in prison for the murder. GOOD.”
Weer’d:
You know, I love you like a brother, but I’ve got to disagree with you on this. I have serious doubts that a 12 year old has the moral culpability that would justify trying him as an adult. And given that the situation was apparently exacerbated by Mom’s lack of involvement or concern…
I’m not saying that what the kid did was right or proper or moral. But it sounds to me like he came from a messed up background to begin with, and trying him as an adult and sending him to adult prison isn’t going to do anybody any good. If I were prosecuting this case, I’d go for time in a juvenile institution; maybe, just maybe, there’s a chance that five or six years there would salvage him.
I’m a little divided on this as well. On one hand, I know I had the moral culpability at that age for such a thing, but I also didn’t grow up in the same environment that he did.