Plan B Forum

Teen charged as adult in Santa Cruz girl’s slaying

By Henry K. Lee and Jenna Lyons Updated 3:25 pm, Wednesday, July 29, 2015

SANTA CRUZ — The 15-year-old boy accused of sexually assaulting and strangling 8-year-old Madyson “Maddy” Middleton in his family’s Santa Cruz apartment — after allegedly luring her there with promises of ice cream — was charged Wednesday as an adult with special-circumstances murder.

Adrian Jerry Gonzalez is scheduled to appear Thursday in Santa Cruz County Superior Court in the girl’s killing Sunday. If convicted, he could face up to life in prison.

Prosecutors have charged Gonzalez with murder and the special circumstances of lying in wait, murder in the course of forcible rape, kidnapping and lewd or lascivious acts with a child, along with separate charges of sexual penetration by a foreign object, two counts of forcible lewd act with a child and forcible rape of a child.

Although Gonzalez is being charged as an adult, the fact that he is a juvenile exempts him from the death penalty, authorities said.

At a news conference, District Attorney Jeff Rosell declined to discuss the details leading up to Madyson’s slaying. Rosell also would not say whether Gonzalez had any criminal history.

But court documents outline a chilling scenario: Madyson was tied up or bound during the attack. A source close to the investigation told The Chronicle that the teenager lured the girl to his apartment by offering her some ice cream and that he attacked her from behind as she was serving herself.

“We’re going to bring him to justice, and at this point, there’s no plea deal on anything,” Rosell said.

Asked about a motive, Rosell said, “People do things for lots of reasons. Sometimes we understand them, sometimes we don’t. The specifics of this case I’m really not prepared to discuss.”

He closed by saying, “We’re confident in the charges we filed. Justice demands the charges that we filed, and we filed them appropriately.”

As prosecutors prepared to build their case against Gonzalez, a picture of the defendant emerged on social media. Gonzalez, who acquaintances say is adept at the yo-yo, has an Instagram account with the handle @awkwardyoyoer. Pictures showed him standing outside the apartment complex and performing yo-yo tricks.

A video posted on what is believed to be his Instagram account on Sunday, the same day Madyson was killed, showed someone playing the Tears for Fears song “Mad World,” on the piano. The caption quoted from its lyrics: “The Dreams in which I’m Dying are the Best I’ve ever had.”

The source said the boy lured Madyson to his third-floor apartment at the Tannery Arts Center at 1050 River St. on Sunday afternoon with promises of ice cream, then subdued her from behind, sexually assaulted her and strangled her before dumping her body in a recycling bin in a first-floor garage of the complex.

Gonzalez allegedly disposed of the body only five minutes before the girl’s mother, Laura Jordan, called police shortly after 6 p.m. Sunday to report her missing, the source said.

The boy was caught on surveillance video dumping the body at the bin and then twice visiting the spot after officers arrived to look for Madyson, the source said. The boy repeatedly asked police if they were making any progress in the case, the source said.

Gonzalez was arrested Monday night, just as Madyson’s body was discovered at the apartment complex where she lived with her mother. Police had previously conducted a superficial search of the bin but investigated further and found the body after viewing the video showing him returning to the spot.

Madyson was sexually assaulted, strangled and also suffered trauma to the head, the source said.

As for a motive, the boy told police that he had been considering suicide and that he had wanted to see how people would react by killing the girl, the source said.

Or is the kid just a psychopath?

implement some of the strategies we already know to be effective in tempering the psychopathic personality.

bigskygal wrote:Very sad. I hope someday we will be able to screen for such issues in early childhood and implement some of the strategies we already know to be effective in tempering the psychopathic personality.

But that would take a commitment to quality mental health services & intervention, which I am not hopeful we will see anytime soon.

Aside from medication, there is some evidence for the effectiveness of treatment in those with psychopathic traits, although findings have been conflicting. A study by Caldwell and colleagues (2007) showed that adolescents rated high in psychopathic features showed improvement following a forensic inpatient treatment which emphasized the development of appropriate interpersonal skills and relationships. Although youth who scored higher in psychopathic traits exhibited poorer behavior during the baseline period and at the time of release than youth low on psychopathy, all of the youth exhibited improved behavior during treatment, regardless of their level of psychopathy. Furthermore, psychopathy scores did not have a significant effect on treatment response, and youth who spent substantial time in treatment were less likely to commit additional violent offenses following release (assessed over a period of four years).

bigskygal wrote:
I work in the fucking criminal justice system, you really think I don't know a thing or two about mental health issues???

rubato wrote:The perp had a very difficult family life. You can look it up, if you care. A world that does not treat children that badly will have fewer of these.


Yrs,
Rubato

rubato wrote:The perp had a very difficult family life. You can look it up, if you care. A world that does not treat children that badly will have fewer of these.


Yrs,
Rubato

Not everyone who is treated badly is a psychopath in the end. Not every psychopath was treated poorly in the beginning of their life. Not every psychopath is murderous.