MIAMI — The attorney for a teenager charged with killing his best friend at school plans to ask to have his confession thrown out, saying Monday that his parents were barred from the police interview and he had no attorney present.
Attorney Richard Rosenbaum made that announcement after a judge rejected his request to dismiss the first-degree murder indictment of Michael Hernandez, 14. If convicted as an adult, Hernandez faces a mandatory life sentence without parole.
"We don't believe that he validly waived his rights," Rosenbaum said. Hernandez is accused of stabbing and slashing fellow eighth grader Jaime Gough in a middle school restroom before classes Feb. 3.
Hernandez wrote a journal depicting himself as an aspiring serial killer and outlined eight steps for killing two friends in the restroom on his 14th birthday. He couldn't maneuver the other boy into the right position on the day he planned and is charged as an adult with killing Jaime the next day in the same place.
Hernandez spent most of the 25-minute hearing staring straight ahead from the jury box. A defense psychologist sat with him. Hernandez shook hands with Rosenbaum when he walked in but said little to his team.
No decision has been made, but the defense is leaning toward an insanity defense.
Rosenbaum told Circuit Judge Henry Leyte-Vidal that prosecutors were "starting to see there's some type of (mental) disturbance going on here." But prosecutor Gail Levine said she resented that remark and added, "We see nothing wrong with this defendant."
Rosenbaum complained to the judge that he was being "jerked around" by prosecutors and police because so little information has been turned over to the defense.
The judge said reports take time. Without setting a timetable, he said he would step in if discovery delays become unreasonable.
Rosenbaum expressed concern about how a slight but growing 14-year-old would look to a jury if he sits in jail for more than a year awaiting trial.
"I don't want him to be six feet tall in front of a jury," Rosenbaum said. Hernandez was 5-foot-4 when he was taken into custody at Southwood Middle School shortly after the killing.
"I think we're going to get done before then," the judge said.
Leyte-Vidal set the next hearing for May 20 on Rosenbaum's request to have the government pay defense costs. The judge forced Hernandez's parents to hire an attorney over objections that their son was entitled to a public defender.
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