Santa Cruz teen charged as adult in brutal homicide of 8-year-old

[RexDart]

Source: santa Cruz Sentinel

SANTA CRUZ >> A.J. Gonzallez, a 15-year-old boy from Santa Cruz, has been charged as an adult for the killing, sexual assault and kidnapping of 8-year-old Madyson Jordan Middleton.

Santa Cruz County District Attorney Jeff Rosell said the severity of the case, in which Maddy, according to the charging document was tied up, beaten, strangled, raped, killed and dumped in a garage recycling bin, merited a charge in superior court rather than juvenile court.

“We’re confident in the charges we filed and that’s what justice demands,” Rosell said, crediting law enforcement for the quick resolution of the case.

Rosell said, “I can’t remember any 15-year-old with these specific charges” that include six felonies, among them murder, forcible rape, great bodily injury and kidnapping by lying in wait.

Read more: http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/general-news/20150729/santa-cruz-teen-charged-as-adult-in-homicide-of-8-year-old

---

The news just seems to get worse and worse with this story.

[cosmicone]

1. Sad beyond reason

for Maddy

[CaliforniaPeggy]

2. Unbelievably horrifying.

for Maddy

[olddots]

3. In the past were cases like this kept from the public ?

Is our exposure desensitizing us ? I'm stunned and appalled but so used to these things happening so frequently I accept it as " normal " .

[still_one]

4. In addition the perpetrator took part in the search for Maddy, which puts emphasis on his devious

nature

The whole thing is so sad and awful

[SoCalMusicLover]

9. Killers Like To Do That

Makes them think they look like less of a suspect. It also enables them to see what is going on with the search, and whether the body is about to be found, and their actions uncovered.

Fortunately 15 year olds are not able to get away with these things for very long. It's hard even for an adult, but at 15 you clearly don't have the brains to pull something like this off, even though in his mind I'm sure he thought he did.

Just like the church murderer, trying to flee from the area. I knew it was only a matter of hours until he was caught.

Killing is easy. Getting away is much harder.

[still_one]

10. I think it is more than appropriate that he is tried as an adult.

[former9thward]

18. When it is planned it is easy to get away with it.

1/3 of murders are never solved. The cases the cops solve are the easy ones. The ones where a family member kills another family member -- usually in some emotional outburst. There are about 200,000 unsolved murders since the 1960s.

http://www.npr.org/2015/03/30/395069137/open-cases-why-one-third-of-murders-in-america-go-unresolved

[Kelvin Mace]

5. Why charge him as an adult except to be vindictive?

I have said this before, if we are going to charge kids as adults then we should grant them all the rights that go along with being an adult. If kids can be "adults" at 15, then they should be able to drink, smoke, vote, join the Marines, marry etc, at 15 as well.

And before anyone makes any accusations, I am not saying this kid should walk, but I am tired of these arbitrary distinctions.

[Le Taz Hot]

6. So, what is your suggestion?

Put him in juvenile hall until he's 18 (3 years from now) and then let him out?

[Kelvin Mace]

24. I would suggest that someone who could do this

Is mentally ill and needs to be institutionalized, probably for the rest of his life. I would also be curious as to how a child becomes this damaged.

[udbcrzy2]

28. Maybe he is just a jerk and took it too far

Even if he is charged as an adult (I'm sure he will be), he's not getting the same sentence as an adult. There was sentencing guidelines recently for youthful murder offenders and they cannot be sentenced to life without parole.

Here in Missouri a life sentence for a full adult is only 30-years. If it's 2nd degree murder, he only serves 85% before he can parole out.

[Kelvin Mace]

32. "Maybe he was just a jerk who took it too far"

Again, there seems to be a tremendous lack of interest in why this child did this. Monsters of this type are generally the result of an organic defect, or they are made. Understanding why this happens goes a long way to stopping it in the future.

[LiberalAndProud]

64. It has been suggested, and there is some evidence for it,

that sociopathy is hard-wired. He may have been damaged by environment. It is also possible (I suggest likely) that there is a biological propensity in some people for evil. We may not be the blank slate at birth that Aristotle thought.

[Kelvin Mace]

70. This would fall into the category of organic defect

In my view.

[SoCalMusicLover]

7. Because Being Vindictive Feels Just

He will get off light compared to what he did. Perhaps a juror or the judge will feel sorry for him, being a young 15 year old and all.

What I see is a waste of air and space on this planet. Someone who will now be sustained by the taxpayers for however long he is sentenced.

This killer does not serve any purpose in society. I don't really care what brought him to become EVIL, I only care that he is, and that is not likely to change. It's in his DNA, and that is the hand he chose to play.

A family has been destroyed and will never be the same again due to the loss of their 8 year old daughter. Let me say that again....this cretin Raped & Murdered an 8 year old girl. That should be enough to wipe him from this earth, though that obviously will never happen. He should forfeit his right to life, after he took hers at the age of 8.

[LanternWaste]

13. vindictive behavior and justice are two wholly separate concepts

Regardless of whether it may feel like justice to one or another individual, vindictive behavior and justice are two wholly separate concepts-- neither predicated in any way on the other.

[quakerboy]

25. Indeed. Justice

the administering of deserved punishment or reward.

What would be the deserved punishment for raping and murdering an 8 year old?

Our society sometimes sets aside justice in favor of rehabilitation. But that doesn't change justice.

[Kelvin Mace]

33. Our society is rarely interested in rehabilitation

Our current criminal justice system if geared toward warehousing criminals in inhuman conditions and treating them like animals.

[smirkymonkey]

53. He is not an animal. He is worse than that.

Did you actually read what he did to that poor little girl? Do you have any sympathy at all for her?

[Kelvin Mace]

55. Why is this an "either/or" thing?

If I have sympathy for the victim this automatically precudes compassion for anyone else?

It is the ability to ignore people's humanity that makes monsters possible. This is why the criminal justice system in this country is the abject failure it is.

[smirkymonkey]

60. I'm sorry, I just get the impression that you have more compassion for him than you do for his

victim. Sometimes, I can understand the criminal. In this case, I cannot. The crime was just too heartless and brutal. I just keep thinking about what that poor little girl went through in her last moments and it outrages me.

[quakerboy]

63. Fair enough

In theory we are supposed to be interested in rehabilitation. That's the stated goal, as I understand it

Greed tends to get in the way of that when its put into practice.

But neither corruption nor rehabilitation are inherently justice.

[restorefreedom]

31. it is not necessarily about revenge

but protecting the rest of society from this sociopath. someone capable of this savagry so close to adulthood is not coming back. no rehabilitation for sociopathy. can't be done.

i will save my sympathies for the victim. the people have an obligation to contain this threat and keep him away from the rest of society.

[Kelvin Mace]

34. As long as we keep ignoring why people wind up like this

we will keep having to deal with people like this and their crimes.

And no, I am not excusing what he did, I am simply saying this desire to "lock them up and throw away the key" has not and will not prevent this from happening again.

I am reminded of Susan Smith from SC, who murdered her children and then blamed it on an imaginary black man. There was zero sympathy for her and the prosecutor demanded the death penalty. Yet, the back story was a woman who had been routinely sexually molested as a child by her stepfather, an upstanding member of the church and the community, who actually admitted to the rape. The crime came to the attention of the authorities who pretty much "talked" to the stepfather and let it drop.

When the prosecutor was demanding "justice" for her dead children in the form of state sanctioned murder, I kept wondering where this zeal for justice had been when Susan was the victim being repeatedly raped by her stepfather? If she had received justice then, would her children be dead?

Nobody cared about the past, they just wanted to be part of the howling mob who wanted blood for two innocent children.

The past is prologue.

[restorefreedom]

35. no question we know that there is a cycle of abuse

and i am all for intervening earlier when the abuse is known to get victims help and justice. and susan smith perhaps was influenced by her own mistreatment which was horrible. i don't disagree with you about trying to prevent these awful crimes.

but once they are in the criminal mindset and do the kind of thing this guy did, it is usually too late for them to be recovered. so the only option at that point is containment.

but if it turns out this young man's parents were psychopathic assholes, something should be charged to them too. because they are partly responsible.

[Kelvin Mace]

36. Well, the gist of what I am reading here is

the facts of motivation are not relevant. One person dismissed the issue as "evil in his DNA" or something similar. Without knowing all the facts, how do we know that there is nothing to save?

Our criminal justice system is severely broken and is based on vengeance, not rehabilitation. And don't get me started on how abusive the system is to children.

Again this not about lack of sympathy for the victim, or wanting a dangerous child to go free, it is about people's attitude of "I don't care to know the details, lock him up and forget him", or worse, "kill him."

Inhumane actions punished with inhumanity will never be humane. If we are not better than the criminals, what are we?

[restorefreedom]

38. based on his age and the atrocity of his crime

plus the attempts to cover it up and participating in the search as killers often do, I am comfortable accepting the idea that there is nothing redeemable about this guy. his actions suggest a mindset indicating a deep level of depravity, one which is exceedingly unlikely to be rehabilitated. this was fun for him. and it will not stop if he is free. i would like to know the psychologist take on odds that he would become a law-abiding member of society with no sociopathic tendencies. probably put the odds near zero.

if he wants to become a model prisoner and do some good in prison, I have no problem with that. But he does not deserve a second chance to walk the streets free. I do not think that containing him for life is inhumane punishment. I think that taking a risk of letting him out to do this kind of thing again would be inhumane to the rest of the people who are in his midst.

[Kelvin Mace]

41. Again, I don't disagree

but there is more to this story and simply tossing the kid into a hole and claiming he is an adult is not justice.

Again, no 15 year old behaves this way absent an organic mental defect, or vicious abuse.

Life in prison, specifically in a U.S. prison, with all of the abuses that are currently tolerated (rape, inmate violence, rotting food, predatory contractors, brutal guards, and abusive use of solitary), is inhumane.

[restorefreedom]

57. i think #56 said it well

i don't think we can take the risk. as far as us prisons being inhumane, i think we will have to agree to disagree. it is definitely not a walk in the park, and abuses do occur, but some prisoners do quite well within the system.

and i am not sure how much i can care about someone who did this to an innocent 8 yr old child.

sorry but that is where i am at. get the full story, find out if there is a medical issue or somesuch. absent that, he has to be removed. i would not oppose periodic psych exams, but the problem with sociopath is that they are master manipulators, and many of them know how to say exactly what the examiner wants to hear to get themselves out.

but I also don't have a problem with that marathon bomber being in Supermax. And I know a lot of people here do.

[smirkymonkey]

56. I agree. As I have stated down post, I do think there are some people who are absolutely

irredeemable. Not all, but some and this level of depravity would indicate that he would be in the group that is irredeemable. I'm sorry, there are some kids that are screwed up because they had bad childhoods and there are some kids that are just f-ed up from the beginning. This kid is just not right. Society can not take the risk of assuming that if he is given a second chance that he will act like a model citizen. He will kill again. I have no doubt about that.

[smirkymonkey]

71. +1000

[smirkymonkey]

54. +1000

[smirkymonkey]

19. +1000

Kids like that are damaged beyond repair. I don't think they can ever be rehabilitated. A crime that brutal is an indication that there is something seriously wrong and society will never be safe with someone like that on the loose again.

[passiveporcupine]

21. Being evil is in his DNA?

Last edited Thu Jul 30, 2015, 03:22 AM - Edit history (1)

How do you know that. And if he goes to jail, you are concerned about the cost to taxpayers fo keeping him? So what would you prefer? The death penalty? You do know that costs more, right?

We don't know if he intended to kill her. She went into his apartment with him. Maybe he put her in a position of having to fight (attempted rape) and he killed her accidentally while raping her or trying to restrain her. Or maybe he killed her afterward to keep it quiet (my best guess would be this)...but we don't know yet.

One of the men interviewed for this article said:

“Are we still going to allow all the drifters and fugitives to sleep and live long term here?” asked one man in the comments section of an article about Maddy’s disappearance. “Are we going to continue to allow them to camp by the river, in view of the Tannery, further jeopardizing public safety? Do you still want to help the homeless?

Even here...somebody is already pointing the finger at transients and homeless people, calling them fugitives. Why is everyone always so eager to judge and commit a sentence before even knowing the full story?

A family has been destroyed and will never be the same again

Yes, and this is terrible. But this can happen by accident too. We had a local kid who was going to graduate high school, but on that same day he rode his skate board down a steep hill the T'd with another road and he couldn't stop in time and slid under a big truck that was driving up the other road...running over him and killing him instantly.

Death is tragic. Sudden death (especially if it could have been avoided) is even more tragic.

Let's mourn for this little girl and her family and wait for more news to determine how "evil" this kid is and whether or not he deserves the death penalty. I personally do not believe in the death penalty.

[still_one]

27. It wasn't attempted rape, he raped her. That was reported after they found the body in the garbage bin

Where he threw her, and before he was identified and arrested. At least that were the news reports I heard

[passiveporcupine]

29. I did see a more recent article that says he raped and strangled her

And I would not be surprised by that. But, even in that article, they said there has been no confirmation by the police. I am sure once an autopsy is done the facts will be released. I suspect this will end up being the truth.

Again though, even though I don't think many sexual predators (especially murderers) can be truly rehabilitated...I'd rather he be kept in jail for life. I don't believe in the death penalty and it is far too expensive because of the endless appeals required by a death sentence.

[still_one]

30. I agree with your assessment that some people are evil. I think he should be tried as an adult, and

I have no problem with a life sentence, which I think it most likely will be

[smirkymonkey]

52. Hear, hear!

Sorry, I have no empathy for this worthless little piece of garbage. I'm saving it for his victim.

[Reter]

23. Because they can't kill him

n/t

[LeftyMom]

26. Because otherwise he'll walk free with a clean record by his 25th birthday.

[Nevernose]

45. It's total pragmatism

In most jurisdictions, family/juvenile courts just aren't set up for rape or murder. They require a much higher level of careful jurisprudence from the bench, specialized defenders, specialized DAs, specialized experts, specialized jails, specialized supervision, etc.

[Kelvin Mace]

48. Thank you, at least that makes sense

[Lizzie Poppet]

49. Because it's probably the only way he'll never see another moment free.

And I'm just fine with that: this little monster should never see the outside of a prison ever again.

[One_Life_To_Give]

51. More a statement that the system is broken

He is not an adult. But I see this as a case of recognizing that the Juvenile system isn't the right place either.

[geek tragedy]

8. not much you can do with someone who is capable of such heinous acts.

lock them up to protect society and do our best to prevent others from becoming irredeemable

[rocktivity]

11. Ted Bundy may have made his "debut" at age 15

A nine-year-old girl on his paper route has gone missing to this day.

Maybe a budding serial killer has been stopped in his tracks.


rocktivity

[Nuh Uh]

12. Difficult choices

To say a 15 year old is irredeemable and should be excluded from society for life or should be executed, seems to me to be too callous for a society that tries as hard as we do to be benevolent. No doubt this kid deserves rough punishment, but life without any possibility of parole or death? I'm not sure what drove this kid to do something this heinous and disgusting, but I think we should find out before we agree to the rough punishment the D.A. is already talking about. It seems to me that if he can be repaired at all we should keep that option open instead of openly agreeing that he should be flushed away.

[SoCalMusicLover]

15. Repair What?

To me, it is irrelevant what drove a 15 year old kid to RAPE and KILL an innocent EIGHT YEAR OLD GIRL.

How do you rehabilitate that? You rehabilitate a teenager who steals a 12 pack of beer from Ralph's. But someone who rapes and kills an 8 year old, then tries to cover it up?

So you somehow fix him, and set him back into society? Would you feel safe living with your daughter down the block from him after that? The doctors say he's rehabilitated after all, so he should be perfectly safe to live next door to.

[Nuh Uh]

17. Judgmentalism

Dismissing the possibility of rehabilitation is wrong headed. He may have been abused as a child we simply don't know and I think the facts need to be examined thoroughly and both discovered and discussed before the trigger is pulled on a child.

[restorefreedom]

39. this is not the kind of behavior that gets rehabilitated

this is the kind of behavior that escalates and becomes a way of life for these people. If it turns out that he was abused as a child or had a crappy life, then they should charge his parents too. And I'm sorry if he was initially a victim of crime himself if we end up finding out that that's what happened. But it still doesn't alleviate us of our obligation to protect the rest of society from him. And for me that means containment for life. This would be too high-risk to let him out again in society.

he and others like him may have been victims of crime and abuse. And that sucks. But we can't let him walk free and give them a chance to hurt other people as a consolation prize for whatever abuse he might've suffered. And we don't even know yet if he suffered any. And it really doesn't matter in terms of what needs to happen here: he needs to be confined for life.

[Nuh Uh]

43. I understand the angst

As I said earlier we should fully examine this case before we pull the trigger on a child. 15 is far too young to close the door of life on, His brain isn't even fully formed and his social development is still growing.
In Scandinavia, Anders Brevik received a 21 year sentence for murdering 77 people. He will remain incarcerated as long as he is deemed a danger to society which will likely be life. Why can't we do the same here? If this child is truly un-redeemable then he should be locked up for good, but if his horrible crime was a single instance of an egregious mistake he should get out and have a productive life. I think that is fair and a better administration of justice.

[restorefreedom]

44. i admire your willingness to include all the possible pertinent issues

as for me, i am ok with putting him away and doing a psych eval every 5 yrs to determine whether he is even remotely fit to return to society.

if it is discovered he is schizophrenic or has a brain tumor, i would support reconsideration of that in terms of the crime.

[Nuh Uh]

46. I can agree with you

I think the rule should be a more benevolent society not a more restrictive one. I agree with you and what you propose is not too difficult for hardcore justice fans to accept. This benefits society much better than caging a child for life.

[restorefreedom]

47. always tough to think

young people are capable of this. too bad we even have to discuss it at all.

[smirkymonkey]

61. GWB started out blowing up frogs w/ firecrackers.

Some kids are just born sociopaths. Sorry, but I really believe that. I have seen it with my own eyes. Really sick, sadistic young children who treat animals and other children like they are their playthings, particularly when it comes to inflicting pain.

[MBS]

14. Horrible : ( n/t

[Telcontar]

16. Snip his balls so he cant possibly pass on his DNA

Something mutant in his genes.

Then a lifetime in psychological study so we can learn to recognize these monsters earlier and hopefully treat them before they harm.

[smirkymonkey]

20. I'm sorry, I just think some people are born bad.

I'm as liberal as they come, but some people are just too dangerous to take a chance on. Other innocent children should not have to be subjected to social experimentation in rehabilitating violent predators.

[CanSocDem]

37. "...Born bad"???

So you're saying we've failed as a society because we didn't teach good. Perhaps we should give the churches more power to educate the young.

True liberals(like me) would say ALL children are born good and evil is learned.




.

[smirkymonkey]

40. I used to think that, but I'm not so sure anymore.

I have known some kids that are raised by loving parents and while they haven't killed anyone (yet) there is something kind of evil about them evidenced by the way they treat animals and other children. There is just a certain malevolent presence about them and I don't really think it has anything to do with how they are being raised. Sorry, just an observation.

[Starry Messenger]

22. Her poor mother. Christ.

That little face, so haunting. RIP Mady.

[quakerboy]

66. She was an only child

and an only grandchild.

[Starry Messenger]

67. So sick and tragic.

[duhneece]

42. No child should be tried or imprisoned as an adult

This man-child may be one who CAN be redeemed in 50 years...we can't say for sure. Probably, he should be locked up forever for the safety of the public, especially our most vulnerable children.
Having said that, no brain of 15 yrs should be considered as the brain of a 30 year old. That's using facts & science instead of feelings & opinions. But I get the desire to see him with no humaneness...no compassion, and want to see him treated roughly forever...I feel/felt it, too.

[restorefreedom]

58. unfortunately, it was not his brain

that raped and murdered that beautiful child. So absent a brain tumor or other severe medical condition, he chose to do this and he probably enjoyed it.

[duhneece]

68. According to science, one needs one brain to do that

In order to move, one needs a brain...the brain of a 15 yr old may not be able to 'choose', as you put it. Scientifically, that may be accurate; it would take someone with experience, current info on the brain and all its workings, education, time to decide.
The point is, no 15 yr old, no matter how monstrous his act is a monster. It takes a monstrous policy to treat him as we would a 30 yr old (for example). It's not humane, it's not just...imho

[restorefreedom]

69. agree to disagree

his formation might not be complete but they damn well know what they're doing is wrong. And they choose to do anyway. Society has a right to protect itself from people who choose to flout the law and not live by the principles of a civilized society.

[udbcrzy2]

50. Motive - he had wanted to see how people would react by killing the girl

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.

http://www.ksbw.com/news/santa-cruz-boy-lured-girl-with-ice-cream-at-tannery-source-says/34428226

“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,” the newspaper reported, adding that Maddy had suffered trauma to the head in addition to being strangled.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/07/30/maddy-middleton-was-lured-to-her-death-with-ice-cream-according-to-report/

[smirkymonkey]

62. What a sick little fuck!

I would like to strangle him myself. I know, I am no paragon of humanity, but I am so sick of these predators I could scream. I don't care what they have gone through. Millions of children have gone through what they have gone through and don't do what they do. I have for god's sake. It has only taught me compassion. Abuse is no excuse. Fuck him. He deserves to suffer what his victim suffered. I know that sounds ironic, but I have compassion for those who do no harm to others. I have none for predators.

[quakerboy]

65. I dont buy it

It fails to explain the rape.

[Sunlei]

59. Is that the homeless child who was living in the tannery factory?