Governor signs bill reversing decision to try Maddy Middleton’s accused killer as adult

A bill just signed by Gov. Jerry Brown will prevent teens from being tried as adults.

The new law will have a big impact on one of the biggest murder cases in Santa Cruz.

In 2015, 8-year-old Maddy Middleton was lured into an apartment and later found dead. Her accused killer, Adrian Gonzalez, was 15 years old at the time.

Gonzalez is being held at the Santa Cruz County Jail awaiting what was supposed to have been his adult preliminary hearing in November. But as of Sunday night, that’s all changed.

After a nine-week transfer hearing in 2017, a Santa Cruz County judge ruled that Gonzalez would be tried as an adult for the murder of Maddy.

“At the end of all that we were very relieved, very relieved that he was destined to go through the adult court system,” said Maddy’s grandfather, Dan Middleton.

A glimpse of hope for Maddy’s family after her murder has now turned to fear after the passage of SB-1391.

“We just fear that he would get out at 25, that’s certainly not justice served, but he would get out at 25 and he would be a threat to our communities. That’s the fear,” said Middleton.

The law prevents anyone 15 and under from being tried as an adult, no matter the crime. Supporters of the bill, including the public defender’s office in Santa Cruz, said this is a way for juveniles to seek rehabilitation they would not receive in prison.

Public defender, Ted Fairbanks said, “We’ve argued all along that for a person that is 15 when he does a crime, no matter how bad it is you ought first to get the treatment and therapy that is available through the juvenile system rather than being locked up for 50 years to life with a bunch of adults with no treatment.”

Now if Gonzalez is found guilty, rather than facing life in prison if he were tried as an adult, he would likely be sent to the Department of Juvenile Justice and could be released when he is 25. Maddy’s grandfather said in some cases that rehabilitation could work, but this is not one of them.

“The main issue is there are no exceptions where juveniles who commit heinous crimes will be treated differently than kids who just make mistakes. We heard from expert witnesses that even in this case if Adrian Gonzalez was treatable, there is absolutely no way he would be treatable within the period that he would stay in the juvenile system,” said Middleton.

Middleton said the family will fight this law. Gonzalez’s preliminary hearing was set for Nov. 6. KION was told that hearing will not be happening and Gonzalez will most likely be transferred back to juvenile court soon.

Governor Brown said in a statement regarding the law, “This is a difficult bill. By definition, any 14 and 15 year old that a District Attorney seeks to prosecute as an adult has been accused of a very serious crimes. The opposition of certain crime victims and their families to this measure is intense. I have carefully listened to that opposition and it has weighed on me.”

He goes on to say, “I also studied the case examples, research and data, as well as the legislative history and specific statutes relevant to this bill. All of these factors were important to consider in making the decision to sign this bill, as well as the stark racial and geographic disparity in how young men and women are treated who have committed similar crimes.”

According to the Welfare and Institutions code sections 1800 adn 1800.5 a juvenile can be held beyond their sentence if necessary and if deemed “truly dangerous.” That will be decided by the Director of the Division of Juvenile Justice or the Board of Juvenile hearings.

If they are deemed a threat, they will be held an additional two years according to the Public Defenders office in Santa Cruz and then re-evaluated after those two years and could be held for longer.