A Baltimore County judge ordered a psychiatric evaluation yesterday for the Cockeysville teenager accused of killing his parents and younger brothers.
Circuit Judge Thomas J. Bollinger Sr. said he will use the assessment "for the purpose of advising the court ... on the mental state of the defendant," which is one element he must consider in deciding whether Nicholas W. Browning, 16, should be tried in the juvenile system or stay in adult court.
Yesterday marked the first time that Browning has appeared in court since being charged with four counts of first-degree murder and four handgun offenses in the Feb. 2 fatal shootings of his family.
Dressed in a plaid shirt and dark blue pants, Browning did not speak to the judge. He looked down and clasped his hands behind him as the judge read each of the four murder charges filed against him.
Several family members seated behind him appeared to fight back tears as the names of the victims were read from the indictment: his parents, John W. Browning and Tamara Browning, and his younger brothers, 14-year-old Gregory and 11-year-old Benjamin.
All four were sleeping in their Cockeysville home when they were killed.
Nicholas Browning told police that he was playing video games at a friend's house late Feb. 1, a Friday, and into the next morning when he decided to walk the nearly three miles back to his parents' Colonial-style home, a source familiar with the investigation has said.
There, he found his father asleep on the couch. In his confession, Browning told police that he retrieved one of his father's guns, shot him in the head and then went upstairs, where he shot his mother and two brothers, the source said. The teenager said he later tossed the gun in the woods and returned to his friend's house, where he continued playing video games.
Defense attorneys have asked that the case be transferred to juvenile court.
The fatal shootings occurred a week before Browning's 16th birthday. Had he been 16 at the time of the killings, he would not be eligible for such a transfer.
Bollinger scheduled a hearing on the transfer request for June. He also set a June deadline for the defense team to ask for a venue change -- that the case be tried in a different county -- and for Browning to decide whether to file a plea of not criminally responsible.
The judge scheduled the trial for July. Browning is being held without bail at the Baltimore County Detention Center.