Age-old debate: Henderson boy’s case brings to forefront issue of

children being tried in adult courts

Erica D. Johnson

Saturday, Feb. 21, 2004 | 8:57 a.m.

The case of a 16-year-old Henderson boy whose alleged drunk driving crash killed three of his

friends is expected to be settled Monday if a judge ratifies an 11th-hour plea agreement.

But the broader questions raised by the case, about the appropriate way to handle juveniles

charged with serious offenses, will continue to be debated, likely into the 2005 session of the

Nevada Legislature.

On Monday Family Court Judge William Voy is scheduled to decide whether the teenage driver

would be tried as a juvenile or as an adult. Under an agreement reportedly reached between the

boy's attorney and prosecutors late last week, however, the boy would plead guilty to reduced

charges as a juvenile and would serve two years in the Clark County Juvenile Detention Center.

Reaction to the agreement was mixed. Some of the parents of the three teens who died in the

crash were outraged. One mother plans to ask Voy to reject the deal. The president of Stop DUI

believes the teen should be tried as an adult. Others, experts on juvenile justice and some of

those involved in the juvenile system in Clark County, believe the boy should be treated as a

juvenile.

Prior to the agreement prosecutors had called the crime heinous and said the driver deserved

harsher punishment than provided for in the juvenile system. They pushed for him to be tried as

an adult, they said, because the public wanted everything possible done to prevent more of these

kinds of incidents.

Police said the teen had a blood-alcohol level of 0.19 when his car crashed into a wall Nov. 10,

killing Travis Dunning, Josh Parry and Kyle Poff, all 15 years old. The driver faces nine felony

charges, including involuntary manslaughter and reckless driving, and if convicted as an adult

would face a long prison sentence.

The plea agreement would drop the most serious charges, leaving him charged with felony

driving under the influence and reckless driving.

If the judge accepts the agreement, or at least the basic components of it, the question of what to

do in this case will be decided. But the many questions regarding whether to try juveniles

charged with serious crimes in the juvenile or adult courts remain.

The Henderson teen's deadly wreck isn't the kind of case typically dealt with in the juvenile

system -- thefts, robberies and assaults are more common.

But with a rise in juvenile crime during the past year, local officials say they want to be tough on

teens who commit crimes.

Clark County is seeing an increase in the number of juveniles being charged, tried and sentenced

as adults. Juveniles who are convicted of crimes in the adult system can face lengthy sentences in

the Nevada Department of Prisons and teens 16 and older are eligible for the death penalty.

When it comes to serious crimes, Nevada law takes some power out of the hands of judges. State

law requires children 8 and older charged with murder, attempted murder and some sexual

assaults to automatically be tried in the adult system.

In cases such as the Henderson teen's wreck, however, prosecutors can ask a judge to transfer the

juvenile to the adult system.

Sandy Heverly, president of Stop DUI, said that's what should be done with the Henderson teen.

She said the reported deal sends only one message -- that Nevada's juvenile justice system is not

working properly.

"Those three that were killed are just as dead whether the driver was 16 or 96," she said. "When

you are given the privilege of a driver's license you accept certain adult responsibilities. Part of

those were obeying our traffic laws. It was obvious he made willful choices to disregard those

laws."

If convicted as an adult, the Henderson teen could be sentenced to two to 20 years in prison for

each of the three felony drunken driving counts and one to four years for each of the involuntary

manslaughter counts.

Under the reported plea agreement, however, he would serve two years in a juvenile detention

center.

Heverly said two years in the juvenile system is not an appropriate punishment time for someone

who has killed three people, apparently while driving drunk, she said.

"It makes a mockery of the deaths of those who were killed," she said. "It makes a mockery of

our DUI laws. The juvenile justice system leaves a lot to be desired."

But others, including some national experts on juvenile justice, say the plea deal expected on

Monday is an appropriate resolution for the Henderson case.

Michael Dale is a law professor at Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., who

has authored several books on juvenile justice laws. He recently worked on the appeal for 16-

year-old Lionel Tate, the Florida teen sentenced to life without parole in the killing of a 6-year-

old playmate. Tate was 12 when the crime occurred.

A Florida appeals case recently overturned the conviction and allowed him to plead guilty to

second-degree murder and be sentenced to time already served.

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Dale said the proposed deal in the Henderson teen's case "doesn't sound unreasonable."

"I would think that is what a reasonable prosecutor would do," he said.

Trying the teen in the adult system wouldn't benefit the community or the teen, Dale said.

Juveniles by nature do not have the same skills, knowledge and thought processes as adults,

often making them incapable of making wise decisions.

"It has to do with adolescent behavior," he said. "It's not stuff they can necessarily control. They

don't understand death. They take risks. They don't understand that they are not the center of the

universe."

Those are some of the underlying principles for a separate juvenile justice system, after all,

Delise Sartini pointed out while lobbying for the Henderson teen's case to remain in the juvenile

justice system.

Sartini and several other Las Vegas Valley women from prominent families in the community

organized a group called "Moms on a Mission" after watching television footage of the

Henderson teen's Jan. 5 juvenile court hearing. The broadcast showed the weeping teen being

consoled by his mother as he was handcuffed and taken away to the juvenile detention center.

Keeping the teen in the juvenile system was a goal of Moms on a Mission.

"He was a teenager when he got in that car, but the moment he killed three people, all of a

sudden he's an adult," she said.

Sartini, like many people, however, stop short of saying no juveniles should be tried as adults.

Sartini pointed to 17-year-old Monique Maestas as an example of a violent criminal charge that

deserves the harsher punishment of the adult judicial system. Maestas is being held at the county

jail while she awaits trial, as an adult, on murder and attempted murder charges in a stabbing

attack that killed a 3-year-old girl and left her 10-year-old sister paralyzed. Maestas was 16 at the

time of the stabbings.

Maestas' case was automatically transferred to the adult system because she faces a murder

charge. Her brother Beau, 19, is also charged in the attack. Both teens face the death penalty if

convicted.

Sartini said, "To put (the Henderson teen) in the same classification as violent criminals to us

seems heinous in itself."

Sartini and others, including some lawmakers, say the time has come for the state to reconsider

the way it handles juvenile crime. Prosecutors say there is plenty to consider because the number

of cases involving felony crimes by juveniles in the Las Vegas Valley is escalating.

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"My personal belief is that children are smarter than we give them credit for," said Jonathan

VanBoskerck, the prosecutor in the juvenile division of the District Attorney's office who is

handling the Henderson teen's case. "They pay careful attention to how adults respond to their

actions. The entire premise of what we do in juvenile court is that children can in fact learn."

At the Jan. 5 hearing, VanBoskerck said that was one of the reasons why the Henderson teen

needed to be punished harshly -- to make the high-profile case serve as a deterrent.

Assemblywoman Sheila Leslie, D-Reno, chairwoman of a committee of lawmakers looking at

changing Nevada's juvenile justice system and the mother of a 17-year-old, disagrees.

"Making an example of him and certifying him (to stand trial as an adult) is not going to change

the behavior of other youths," Leslie said. "That is not something we can legislate."

Leslie said she also was not aware of the details involved in the teen's case but knew enough to

see it as tragic and a symptom of a much larger problem. She said the case emphasized the need

for more drug and alcohol awareness among Nevada teens.

"Our state has underestimated the impact of the alcohol problem in our high schools," she said.

"This is not an isolated event. We have got to handle the drinking-and-driving situation among

our youth."

The reported plea deal includes hundreds of hours of community service by the Henderson teen

including anti-drunken-driving speeches at area high schools.

Heverly said she has a better idea.

"What would have been effective is for him to speak to his peers dressed in prison garb and

brought to the podium by a prison guard," she said. "That would have made an impact."

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Drunken driving by teens is only one of the many types of cases stacking up with local

prosecutors.

In 2003, the juvenile division of the District Attorney's Office handled about 15,000 referrals

from local law enforcement agencies. Prosecutors filed charges in about 8,000 of those cases,

court officials said.

In 2003, certification hearings, or hearings in which prosecutors file petitions asking a judge to

transfer juveniles to the adult system, were held in 78 cases, Fritz Reese, assistant director of

Clark County's Department of Juvenile Justice Services, said. Of those cases, 35 juveniles were

certified as adults and bound over to the adult system, he said.

Those most recent annual totals show a marked increase from 2002, when 41 juveniles had

certification hearings. In that year, 21 of those juveniles were transferred to adult courts. In 2001,

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63 juveniles had certification hearings and 25 were certified to stand trial as adults. In 2000, 42

juveniles had certification hearings and only eight were bound over to the adult system.

Those numbers do not include cases in which juveniles were automatically certified because of

the serious nature of the charges, Reese said. County officials said the justice system does not

keep records for that category.

"The volume of petitions we're filing (to try juveniles as adults) has shot up dramatically in the

last year," VanBoskerck said. "We're seeing a larger percent of cases involving serious danger to

the community and a lot more cases involving guns."

"There's a sense among all of us on the ground doing the work that we're overwhelmed," he said.

Some lawyers who defend juveniles say Nevada authorities are overwhelmed, in part, because

the state is dealing with juvenile offenders in the wrong way. Some lawmakers agree and are

looking at changing the laws yet again.

Most Nevada laws regarding juvenile justice were created in 1943, giving the court some

guidelines when determining how to handle juvenile delinquents. At that time, lawmakers

determined that some crimes were so heinous that they belonged in the adult system.

Those laws have been tinkered with nearly every legislative session since they were enacted.

Substantial changes were made during the 2003 Legislature, including the creation of a

graduated sanctions program, in which juvenile offenders will receive harsher punishments for

repeated offenses.

There are expected to be more changes proposed during the next legislative session. Some of

those proposals are likely to come from the Legislature's Interim Study on Juvenile Justice,

which is led by Leslie.

She said some lawmakers have expressed an interest in developing blended sentencing, which

would allow convicted juveniles to start out in the juvenile system and move to the adult system

when they turn 18, depending on whether they have shown progress in the juvenile system.

Leslie said a handful of states have already switched over to a blended sentencing system.

Nevada lawmakers have not adopted that idea, however.

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Leslie is a proponent of keeping the Henderson teen's case in the juvenile justice system.

"The juvenile justice system is set up to hold youths accountable," she said. "The whole reason

we have a separate system is the heavy emphasis on rehabilitation. I don't think we should give

up on every 15-year-old."

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But Phil Kohn, who leads the county's Special Public Defender's Office and represents Monique

Maestas, has a different take. He says society shouldn't give up on any juvenile. He says every

juvenile charged with a crime should be tried as a juvenile.

"We need to look at juveniles as people we can rehabilitate," he said. "They are still learning and

developing. They are still growing."

And juvenile court, he said, functions on the basic premise that all youths can be rehabilitated.

Allen Lichtenstein, general counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada, said the

state's juvenile justice laws should strive to reach a balance of punishment and rehabilitation.

"They are not mutually exclusive," he said. "Juveniles need to have programs and the attention

that will help steer these kids into patterns that are more productive."

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While state laws dictate specific penalties for crimes in the adult system, in juvenile court the

judges determine punishments.

In the juvenile system, most offenses are punished by a combination of community service,

counseling and other programs. Some young offenders are incarcerated in juvenile detention

facilities.

The average stay in those facilities is short -- about six to nine months due in part to the shortage

of bed space at the five facilities available to house juveniles in Clark County. The same crimes

can draw sentences of years in adult prisons.

"Within the juvenile justice system there is a belief that children, even those who commit crimes,

still have the potential for rehabilitation," Lichtenstein said. "In the adult system, the idea is

strictly punishment."

District Attorney David Roger said rehabilitation is a realistic goal for individuals who are

convicted in the adult system as well.

"There's always at least some effort to rehabilitate," he said. "One of the goals of the criminal

justice system is to rehabilitate defendants to become productive members of society again."

Roger said he believes that any individual who commits murder, however, is an exception.

"When it comes to murder, I don't think rehabilitation is a legitimate concern from the criminal

justice system," he said. "If you take a human life, punishment should be the goal of the system."

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The mother of 16-year-old Theo Evans wanted the juvenile justice system to punish her son after

he got into trouble even though his crimes were far less than murder.

It was Christmas 2002 when Theo made the decision that would earn him his first night in a jail

for juveniles.

He and his friend had been walking through the parking lot of a local Home Depot when they

noticed a car in front of the store with the keys still in the ignition. The teens took the car for a

joyride.

Hours later the two were arrested and booked into the Clark County Juvenile Detention Center

on a charge of conspiracy to commit grand theft auto. Evans' mother, Penny, picked him up from

the jail the next morning, and at a court hearing a juvenile judge placed him on probation for six

months.

"It was my first felony," Theo said recently as he sat in the living room of his family's home at

the Moulin Rouge apartments in West Las Vegas.

While still on probation for the Christmas day theft, he got into trouble again with the same

friend. The pair stole another car to joyride in with several teen girls.

Theo and his friend were arrested again and charged with multiple felony counts, including

grand theft auto.

This time, the teens spent a month in the juvenile detention center and were placed on an

intensive supervision program, in which they reported to a probation officer when they weren't in

school.

Theo, a sophomore at Las Vegas High School, said he's not sure what led him to steal another

car when he was so close to successfully completing his probation.

"I guess I just didn't care anymore," he said.

But Penny Evans said she believes the "slap on the wrist" given to her son during his first

juvenile court case made him underestimate the seriousness of his criminal behavior. She said

she was glad the system got tough the second time around.

"They kept him for 30 days to show him where he was headed if he continued this behavior," she

said. "That is probably what saved him in the long run."

Because Theo's crimes weren't violent, prosecutors never tried to transfer him to the adult

system. But they warned the teen that if he were charged with another crime, his chances of

winding up in the adult system were great.

"I think (the juvenile system) was fair," Theo said. "I learned that if you keep trying to break the

law, it's always going to catch up with you."

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Evans said she believes the juvenile system worked for her son -- he has stayed out of trouble

during the last six months and is to begin playing high school football in the fall.

Other teens, however, may need more serious punishments in order to send a message that crime

won't be tolerated in Clark County, she said. If that means transferring some teens to the adult

system, so be it.

"They should be hard on these kids," she said. "Not just on my son, but on any child that goes

out and thinks he can commit crimes without any consequences."

That's part of the rationale behind the state laws that automatically put juveniles into the adult

system when they are charged with the most serious crimes.

The highest profile recent example involves nine alleged members of the 311 Boyz gang. They

were automatically certified to stand trial in adult court on 12 felony charges, including

attempted murder, relating to a July rock attack on a 17-year-old northwest Las Vegas boy.

Stephen Tanner Hansen's face was crushed when one of the teens threw a rock through the

window of a truck in which he was riding.

In the months that followed the attack, valley residents were divided over whether the case

belonged in the adult or juvenile system. Some people said the state had overcharged teens who

had gotten into a fight at a party the way boys sometimes do.

Others believed the teens were acting as a violent gang that appeared capable of killing someone.

They said the teens deserved the harsher punishment available through the adult system.

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In a separate case, a 16-year-old graffiti tagger was charged with a gang-related beating and

other crimes in Clark County's juvenile justice system.

David, as he asked to be called, lives with his father and stepmother in East Las Vegas. He said

he and his group of friends are responsible for graffiti on walls and buildings as far as North Las

Vegas.

"We would do it on buildings, brick walls, rooftops, billboards, all over," he said.

David, a high-school dropout, was 15 when he was first introduced to the juvenile justice system.

After a fight with his mother, David was arrested on battery and possession of drug paraphernalia

charges and as held in the juvenile jail for 12 hours. He was placed on probation, but failed to

take the scheduled drug tests as ordered by the court. He was arrested two weeks later on

violation of probation charges.

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While David was at the detention center, a teen outside the jail gave police information on David

and his graffiti crew. David was charged with seven counts of malicious destruction of private

property. He made a deal with prosecutors in which he pleaded guilty to one count and was

placed on house arrest.

When David was released the second time, he and his friends committed a crime that could have

landed him in the adult system.

"I beat up the kid that snitched on me," he said. "I accepted what I did. I never blamed it on

anyone else."

David was arrested a third time just 17 days after he was released on the graffiti charges. He was

charged with battery with a deadly weapon and possession of a concealed weapon, a knife. This

time, prosecutors added gang enhancement to the charges because of his involvement with the

graffiti crew.

Despite the violence involved in his crime, he said, prosecutors never tried to get his case

transferred to the adult system.

"They could have because of the gang enhancement," he said. "But it was never brought up. I

would have understood if I would have got committed. I think they were completely fair."

David was placed in the intensive supervision program, where he said he met juveniles as young

as 12 who were charged with similar crimes. After finishing the program in early November,

David now is trying to enroll in a GED program. He wants to become an auto mechanic.

"I learned that having fun and doing what I want to do isn't worth losing my life over," he said.

David said he is trying to turn his life around and hasn't gotten back into trouble so far.

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Some Nevadans complain that the state's juvenile justice system gives too many chances to teens

such as Theo and David. Repeat offenders still make up a majority of the cases that come before

judges in juvenile court.

"The vast majority of our business are frequent fliers," VanBoskerck said. "For whatever reason,

they just don't get it."

But who should decide whether a juvenile, whether or not he is a repeat offender, should be

charged in the adult system?

In Nevada, even when a juvenile is not automatically transferred to the adult system because of

the nature of the charges, prosecutors can ask a judge to certify an offender 14 or older as an

adult and transfer the case to the adult system.

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With discretionary certification, the most common form, prosecutors must prove the case should

be transferred from the juvenile system to the adult system. Presumptive certification has to do

with cases involving the use of a firearm or sexual assault cases involving the use or threat of

violence.

In those cases, defense attorneys must prove that the case should remain in juvenile court

because the juvenile's conduct was substantially influenced by substance abuse or emotional or

behavioral problems and those problems could be effectively treated in the juvenile system.

After a team of attorneys reviews each case to determine whether they believe the case warrants

certification, prosecutors generally argue the merits of three factors when asking a judge to

certify a juvenile -- the nature and seriousness of the offense, harm to the community and

previous offenses.

The process also includes input from social workers, psychologists and probation officers. A

Family Court judge makes the final decision after hearing arguments from both sides.

"It is up to the court to balance community protection with other factors," VanBoskerck said.

But that type of judicial review -- in which judges examine the individual circumstances of each

case -- is precisely what is lacking in Nevada's automatic certification laws, Kohn said.

He said he doesn't believe any cases should be automatically transferred to the adult system

because of the charges alone.

"If a judge sees that a case belongs in adult court, these elected judges will do what's best to

protect the community," he said. "But our law mandates you put them in jail and treat them as an

adult. That's a bad law."

Like the legislators who created the law, Roger disagrees.

"When it comes to violent crimes, I don't know if the juvenile system is the appropriate place for

those individuals," he said.

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Mark Ford, a 16-year-old charged with murder in the adult system, had been on 23-hour lock-

down at the Clark County Detention Center for nearly 10 months while he awaited trial on a

murder charge.

Jail officials put the teen in lock-down as a way of keeping him separate from the general

population of the jail, said his attorney, Deputy Public Defender Curtis Brown.

Ford's trial will begin Monday. He is charged in the February robbery and murder of 56-year-old

Vincent Gomes. Prosecutors say the teen went into Gomes' home to rob it and brutally stabbed

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Gomes to death when he discovered Gomes was there. Ford was 15 when the crime occurred.

The case was automatically transferred to the adult system because of the murder charge.

Five weeks ago, Ford was moved to a different part of the jail, where he is around some other

inmates but is still in a somewhat protected environment. Brown said he was not sure the reason

for the change or why officials didn't move Ford months ago.

Brown said he has noticed a difference in his young client since the move.

"I can't tell you the difference it makes," he said. "You take a kid and you lock him in a room for

23 out of 24 hours of the day and you drive him crazy."

Brown had argued to have Ford relocated to the Juvenile Detention Center while he awaited trial,

but that request was denied by a family court judge. Brown said arrangements should be made at

the adult jail to avoid situations such as Ford's.

"There has to be some level of compromise," he said. "It's just not an appropriate or humane

environment to house an individual, particularly a 15-year-old."

In Nevada, if juveniles are tried in the adult system and they are convicted, they are housed in the

county jail or the Nevada Department of Prisons with other adult offenders. On any given day in

recent weeks there were about 40 juveniles in the Clark County Detention Center, jail officials

said.

Kohn, whose client, Monique Maestas, is also housed at the jail, said convicted juvenile

offenders who wind up in adult jails or prisons often get taken advantage of, physically and

emotionally.

"I don't think putting (juveniles) in jail with 30- and 40-year-olds who have a lifetime of crime

behind them is the right way to go for our society," he said.

Lichtenstein said, "No one would argue with the fact that the adult prison system is school for

criminals." Juveniles sent to prison "just become more immersed in the culture of crime and they

are more likely to go out and commit more crimes," he said.

The Nevada Department of Prisons does its best to keep juveniles segregated from the general

population, Howard Skolnick, assistant director of the Nevada Department of Corrections, said.

At High Desert State Prison near Indian Springs, where most juvenile inmates are held, inmates

under 21 are placed in a segregated portion of the prison as part of a youthful offender program.

The youthful offenders program provides programs geared toward youths, including counseling

and schooling, with classes taught by Clark County School District teachers.

There are 64 inmates younger than 18 in Nevada prisons, Skolnick said. There are 131 inmates in

the youthful offender program, which has inmates up to age 21.

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"Once (juveniles) learn the system, they generally assimilate well into the rest of the population,"

Skolnick said.

Despite the special arrangements for juveniles at Nevada prisons, from a sociological

perspective, sending children to adult prisons has never been effective, said Simon Gottschalk, a

social psychologist and professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

"It's suicidal," he said. "There is no doubt in my mind that sending a kid to prison with hardened

criminals will destroy the child. Hope of (the juvenile) ever returning to society as a law-abiding

citizen are remote."

Family Court Judge Dianne Steel, who recently ended her three-year tenure as juvenile judge,

said she believes Nevada needs a facility that would house only convicted juvenile offenders.

The juveniles could serve flat sentences for their crimes while being housed with other juveniles.

That type of facility would make rehabilitation more of a reality, she said.

Steel has long argued for front-end services that she says would reach troubled youth before they

become immersed in a life of crime.

"We can possibly reach these kids if we can get to them soon enough," she said.

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