Brain testing sought for boy

Michael Hernandez may have a growth in his brain that could affect his defense in the fatal stabbing of a middle school classmate, his attorney argued Thursday, as he asked a judge to allow the 14-year-old to undergo medical tests.

Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Henry Leyte-Vidal said he would let Hernandez, who is being tried as an adult in the first-degree murder case, go to Miami Children's Hospital for neurological test scans over the next two weeks.

Hernandez's lawyer, Richard Rosenbaum, raised the new defense theory during arguments on whether the teen is competent to stand trial in the February killing of Jaime Gough, a classmate at Southwood Middle School.

Rosenbaum disclosed for the first time Thursday that a Columbia University Medical School neuropsychologist recently tested Hernandez and questioned whether his violent behavior was caused by mental health or physiological problems.

The specialist, Wilfred van Gorp, determined that Hernandez may have a lesion in his right frontal lobe, Rosenbaum said, and recommended two neurological test scans.

Rosenbaum said that Hernandez's competence to stand trial as well as his possible insanity defense would depend on clarifying the root cause of his violent behavior.

The judge said he would decide today or early next week whether Hernandez possesses a rational understanding of the charges and the legal system.

''Bottom line, we obviously have a dispute between the experts,'' Leyte-Vidal said.

Last month, two court-appointed experts, psychologist Vanessa Archer and University of Miami psychiatrist Jon Shaw, testified that Hernandez likely suffers from mental illness, namely depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder. But they believe the teen's thinking patterns are rational enough to enable him to assist in his own defense.

But a defense expert, Professor Barry Rosenfeld of Fordham University, said Hernandez suffers from schizophrenia. He said the youth's thinking is so disordered that it prevents him from understanding the gravity of the charges and leaves him too out of touch with reality to help his defense lawyer.

Hernandez, in custody at the Turner Guilford Knight Correction Center in West Miami-Dade, has pleaded not guilty to Jaime's murder -- though police said he gave them a confession.