The lawyer for 14-year-old murder defendant Michael Hernandez has filed court papers invoking an insanity defense -- an uncommon legal maneuver that could delay the teen's trial for the stabbing death of a Southwood Middle School classmate nearly a year ago.
Attorney Richard Rosenbaum alerted Miami-Dade County prosecutors last month that he plans to argue that Hernandez should be found not guilty by reason of insanity. In the court papers, Rosenbaum said the boy didn't know what he was doing, or he didn't know it was wrong.
Hernandez is accused of jumping classmate Jaime Gough in a school bathroom on Feb. 3, cutting the boy's throat and stabbing him nearly 40 times. In the months before the killing, Hernandez showed compulsive behavior that worried his parents, and a journal found in his backpack displayed a fascination with serial killers, violence and prayer.
A psychologist hired by the defense said Hernandez suffers from paranoid schizophrenia. Two court-appointed experts disagreed with that conclusion, though they did believe that Hernandez suffers from an obsessive-compulsive disorder.
The question of Hernandez's mental fitness first came up last year when Rosenbaum argued that the teen was not competent to understand a trial or help his defense lawyers. Last month, Circuit Judge Henry Leyte-Vidal ruled Hernandez has a mental illness but was competent to stand trial.
To mount an insanity defense, a defendant must be more than mentally ill. The defense lawyer also must show that his client didn't know at the time that his actions were wrong, said Bruce Winick, a University of Miami law professor.
That means much of the trial could be spent on testimony from doctors and other expert witnesses who have evaluated Hernandez -- in addition to dozens of police officers and school children now on the witness list.
The trial is scheduled to begin May 9, but could be delayed for several months because of psychological exams and pretrial hearings.
Hernandez recently underwent a brain scan to see if he had a tumor or other growth that could have affected his behavior.
Rosenbaum said Thursday that initial results showed no tumor, though more testing will be necessary.
