A prosecution expert testified Friday that violent behavior by the teen accused in the killing of a teacher at the Cheltenham youth facility had escalated, in spite of the treatment he was receiving. Because of the youth's history, he said, the youth needs more treatment than is available in the juvenile system.
But a defense witness countered that despite past troubles, the youth could benefit from being treated with other adolescents, rather than being treated as an adult.
The experts testified before Prince George's County Circuit Judge C. Philip Nichols, who will decide whether the youth will be tried as a juvenile or as an adult on charges of first-degree murder and sex offenses in the bludgeoning death 11 months ago of 65-year-old Hannah E. Wheeling of Bel Air.
The youth was 13 at the time of the slaying, and was being held at Cheltenham on burglary charges. If found responsible as a juvenile, he can be held until he is 21. An adult conviction holds the possibility of life in prison.
"An adult sentence in this case would be throwing him away," Alan Wolf, the youth's public defender, said outside the courtroom. He said it is difficult to get into the Patuxent Youthful Offender Program in adult prison, which the prosecution expert suggested for long-term treatment for the youth. The program has a waiting list, and by the time his client might be eligible, the opportunity to remold his life would have slipped away, he said.
"He is in the clinical classification of the worst of the worst," said James E. Lewis, a neuropsychologist who testified for the prosecution. He referred to his review of records that he said showed childhood onset of a severe conduct disorder. He said that if the youth were an adult, he would qualify as having an antisocial personality disorder that underlies many serial, violent offenders. The youth also tested as average or above in most academics, he said.
Records show the youth physically attacked other children when he was 6, and his behavior worsened to include bullying, robberies and the use of weapons, though he was receiving daily special help in school, Lewis said. In 2007, the boy was placed in a nonprofit Foundation School, which focuses on emotionally disturbed children.
"In spite of the highest level of therapeutic educational services," the youth's behavior continued to worsen, Lewis said.
He told police that in the fall of 2009, he broke into a home to view pornography and assaulted the resident. A second break-in, in which a sleeping woman was repeatedly stabbed, has not been brought to court; Prince George's County prosecutors are seeking to have him tried as an adult in that case as well.
Lewis estimated that at least 10 to 15 years of treatment would be necessary to treat the youth, twice as long as he could be held by juvenile authorities.
But Wolf, the youth's attorney, challenged that time frame.
Defense expert and MacArthur Foundation award winner Bryan Stevenson, who heads the Alabama-based Equal Justice Foundation, testified that imprisoned adolescents are more likely to be victimized and commit suicide.
"Kids 13 years of age, it would never be appropriate to put in the adult system," he said.
They respond well to being immersed in positive intervention geared to their age and individual needs, away from adult criminals, he said.
"These are kids who frequently can come to understand the world around them," he said.
However, when cross-examined by Assistant State's Attorney Les Adams, Stevenson said there was no guarantee that six years of treatment would be enough.
About three more expert witnesses are expected to testify when the hearing resumes at the end of January.
The youth's mother sat attentively during the hearing, and her pastor, who was with her, said she is not speaking publicly about her son. He is now 14, and is not being identified by The Baltimore Sun because his case is in juvenile court.