Report shows teen was stabbed at least 40 times

MIAMI — A 14-year-old student who was killed in a school bathroom had been stabbed at least 40 times in the neck and face, leaving both jugular veins severed and a "gaping" wound in his windpipe, a medical examiner's report found.

The Miami-Dade County medical examiner's findings released Thursday on the slaying of 14-year-old Jaime Gough found that most of the wounds were to the front of his neck and right part of his face, and included seven wounds on his right hand indicating he may have tried to fend off the attack.

"The medical examiner's report is just devastating for Jaime's family," said their attorney, Lee Marks. "The stab wounds to his hands make it apparent that Jaime fought, and that makes it even more difficult."

Prosecutors also released a sworn statement by a 13-year-old classmate, identified only as A.D.M. to protect his privacy. The student alleges that Michael Hernandez, 14, accused of killing Jaime, showed off a knife at school months before the Feb. 3 slaying in the bathroom of Southwood Middle School in Palmetto Bay.

Hernandez is being tried as an adult. He has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder charges. Police say he gave a detailed confession on the day of the killing and his journal released by prosecutors seems fixated on violence. If convicted, he would face life in prison without the possibility of parole.

John Spencer, a forensic psychologist and member of Hernandez's defense team, conceded that the medical examiner's report documents a brutal attack. "I think the very nature of the injuries inflicted speaks to the severe disturbance of the person who inflicted them," Spencer said.

Hernandez's attorney, Richard Rosenbaum, did not return a phone message seeking comment Friday.

Hernandez's journal also showed that he had a "hit list" he took to school the day of the attack. The three names on the list were: Hernandez's sister Christina, 19, Jaime, 14, and A.D.M., 13. Hernandez had originally planned to kill A.D.M., according to the journal.

According to A.D.M.'s sworn statement, he said Hernandez had asked him and Gough to go to the boys bathroom the day before the murder. Hernandez asked the boy to go inside a stall with him because he wanted to show him something, according to the statement. Hernandez also asked Gough to stand guard near the bathroom entrance.

"After he put on a baseball cap that he took out from his front pocket of his jacket, he asked me to go into the handicapped stall of the bathroom," A.D.M. said.

The boy refused and suggested Hernandez show Gough first. When the first period bell rang, Hernandez asked the two boys to meet him in the bathroom before school the next day.

"He said that he would show Jaime and I the next morning," A.D.M. said.

But A.D.M. said he forgot about the meeting.