There's an 11 year old girl being held in the Pinellas County Juvenile Detention Center on charges of arson and attempted murder. Apparently, she and her 15 year old boyfriend, poured gasoline around mom's bed while she slept and tried to light mom on fire. Luckily mom escaped.
She's now being represented by a private attorney who says her mother does not want to prosecute. If this was your child what would you do? 11 years old is still like a baby to most mothers. Perhaps the problem in the mother - daughter relationship was that mom didn't approve of the 15 year old boyfriend. I hope that's what the problem is. St. Pete Times article
This case is strikingly similar the the Valessa Robinson case from Tampa in 1998. A 15 year old girl at the time, she and her boyfriend killed her mother and dumped the body. She's currently serving a 25 year sentence, her boyfriend on death row. See Tampa Bay Online
So what do the courts do with a kid like this? Even if mom has a change of heart and decides she doesn't want to prosecute, I am almost sure the state will prosecute the child without the help of mom. And despite the popular notion that juvenile records are expunged when a person turns 18, that's not the case. So this little girl will have an arson and attempted murder charge on her record forever. Crazy huh?
What about her age? The law says that anyone under 8 years old is not mature enough to understand the consequences of their actions. Clearly anyone under 14 can't understand the court system. - Most adults don't understand it. Mr. Walker, the Assistant State Attorney in charge of Pinellas Juvenile Division, indicated she may be charged as an adult. Mr. Walker rarely gets the law wrong. But in this case, he did (Sorry Joe) - unless the child is 14 and/or has previously been convicted of a violent crime, they can't' be tried as an adult. (A disclaimer here: Mr. Walker may have been misquoted by the St. Petersburg Times, it wouldn't be the first time the paper misquoted)
Is the girl mentally ill? Perhaps. If her lawyer decided to take that route, she will have a "competency exam" which will be a review by a psychologist to decide if she can understand the court process and/or the consequences of her actions.
Where's the boyfriend? The 15 year old will be prosecuted as an adult. And once the charges are filed, he'll be moved from the juvenile detention center to the Pinellas County Jail, and held in the juvenile section there. Not a nice place. I hope his parents can afford a lawyer.
