Teen, 14, faces trial as adult in slaying

Fourteen-year-old Michael Hernandez has a mental illness but is competent to stand trial as an adult on first-degree murder charges, a judge ruled on Wednesday.

Hernandez is accused of jumping classmate Jaime Gough, 14, in February and slitting his throat in a middle school bathroom.

Hernandez's lead attorney, Richard Rosenbaum, said the judge's decision wasn't unexpected, but was disappointing for his client.

''It's a sad day when a 14-year-old who is actively psychotic will stand trial as an adult,'' Rosenbaum said. ``I think the judge is saying that Michael is crazy but not so crazy that it impacts his ability to aid in his defense.''

Hernandez would face life in prison if convicted.

Mental health experts gave dueling testimony last month on Hernandez's mental fitness and his ability to help his defense team fight the charges against him.

A defense psychologist said the teen suffers from paranoid schizophrenia and doesn't have a reasonable understanding of the penalty he faces if he's found guilty. But a court-appointed psycholgist and psychiatrist testified that Hernandez probably suffers from obsessive-compulsive disorder and depression.

Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Henry Leyte-Vidal agreed with the court-appointed experts.

''The court finds based on review of the file and the testimony of the witnesses that the defendant has a mental illness, however the mental illness does not impact on the defendant's competency to proceed with trial,'' Leyte-Vidal wrote in his ruling.

In the six months before Jaime's killing, Hernandez developed ''odd'' repetitive behaviors that caused his parents to consider taking him to a psychologist. The teen had a strict exercise routine and a rigid schedule that had him compulsively checking the items inside the family's refrigerator, the contents of the family's garage and other items around the house at the same time each day.

A journal police discovered in the boy's backpack the day of the killing portrayed a disturbed mind obsessed with serial killers, violence and prayer.

The judge's decision doesn't preclude Hernandez's lawyers from using an insanity defense, something they have said they are considering.

Competency to stand trial means Hernandez is mentally sound enough to understand the legal system and help his attorneys make decisions.

In his ruling, Leyte Vidal wrote: ``The court further finds that the defendant has an appreciation of the charges or allegations against him, that he appreciates the range and nature of possible penalties, that he understands the adversarial nature of the proceedings, that he is able to disclose to his counsel facts pertinent to the proceedings, that he has manifested appropriate courtroom behavior, and that he has the ability to testify relevantly.''

If Hernandez's lawyers use an insanity defense, they'll try to prove his mental illness affected his ability to know right from wrong.

But before a decision is made on the insanity plea, Hernandez will undergo several brain scans to rule out a brain tumor.

A neuropsychologist who recently tested Hernandez questioned whether his violent behavior might have been caused by a lesion in his right frontal lobe.