Diary reveals troubled mind of suspect

''You will become a killer and mass murderer,'' reads one thought fragment written in a schoolboy's scrawl.

``Have a cult and plan a mass kidnapping for new world.''

``Always give thanks and praise to God after killing.''

The journal of 14-year-old Michael Hernandez, accused of slitting a classmate's throat in a bathroom at Southwood Middle School in Palmetto Bay, shows a conflicted mind obsessed with killing, violence and reading the Bible.

In the weeks before prosecutors say he killed 14-year-old Jaime Gough, Hernandez downloaded articles from the Internet about serial killers and building bombs. He also kept lists of violent movies he was interested in, and wrote notes urging himself to ''improve handwriting,'' ''always finish what you start, etc.'' and ''start assignments as soon as possible,'' according to the 41 pages of computer downloads and jumbled handwritten thoughts released Friday by prosecutors as part of pretrial evidence.

Investigators say the pages come from a spiral-bound notebook Hernandez carried in his backpack to school along with a knife and a latex glove on the day of the killing.

Several pages are blank except for headings at the top: ''Names,'' ''Weapons,'' ''Body count,'' `What was done.''

Other pages are covered with sentence fragments -- some in list form, others in a swirl of writing that resembles an electrical storm.

Hernandez doodled primitive pictures of a knife, a stick figure strapped to a table with a buzz saw blade hanging over him, and a swastika with the words ''White Power'' written under it.

Among the movies on his list: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, A Perfect Murder, House of 1,000 Corpses, American Psycho and Psycho.

Prosecutors held back two pages that they and Richard Rosenbaum, Hernandez's attorney, believe might be legally defined as the ``substance of a confession.''

Police say Hernandez gave them a confession hours after Jaime Gough's body was found, but that statement is shielded by state law until the trial.

Sources have said the journal contained a list of potential victims and specific details of a plan for an attack, but that information wasn't in the pages that were released on Friday.

Several investigators close to the case told The Herald last month that Hernandez had planned to kill at least one other student.

If a judge agrees at a hearing Monday that whatever is contained on the two pages qualifies as a confession, they too would be shielded from public scrutiny.

Rosenbaum declined to comment on the journal, nor would he say whether he's considering an insanity defense for Hernandez, who has pleaded not guilty.

''We're just not that far along yet,'' he said. ``I have a team of doctors and psychologists doing tests on Michael now and we're waiting for reports.''

Prosecutors also declined to comment.

The computer downloads detailed how to build a bomb, a remote detonator and a Molotov cocktail and came from a website called the ''Temple of the Screaming Electron,'' according to the Internet address printed at the bottom of the pages.

The stamp indicates the articles were downloaded on Jan. 13. Jaime was killed on Feb. 3.

Another download contrasts different types of killers, including mass murderers, spree killers and serial killers. At the bottom of the article -- which is posted on the Swiss Criminal Profiling Scientific Research Site -- there is a handwritten note: ``will become a serial killer.''

Other entries in the journal suggest Hernandez followed a weight-lifting and body-sculpting regimen, and pressured himself for perfection in many aspects of his life.

''Everyday get everything perfect/straight,'' he wrote. ''Do homework/projects perfectly.'' ``Get serious about everything.''

Despite the ominous writings and pictures, a noted forensic psychiatrist says such a journal doesn't mean much on its own.

''People of all ages are better judged by their actions than by their writings or fantasies,'' said Park Dietz, founder of the California-based Threat Assessment Group, which performed forensic psychological ''autopsies'' of Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris, the two Columbine, Colo., high school students who killed 12 classmates and a teacher and then took their own lives in the nation's deadliest school shooting.

''While it's true that a sizable portion of those who commit the most extreme and notorious crimes have documented their fascination with violence for posterity,'' he said, ``it's not true that a high proportion of youngsters who write such things will act them out.''

`SCREAMS SOMETHING'

In addition to his analysis on Columbine, Dietz has testified in high-profile cases such as serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer; John Hinckley, who tried to assassinate President Reagan; and the Unabomber, Theodore Kaczynski.

Dietz said he didn't want to speculate on Hernandez's journal because he hasn't examined him, but said the inner conflict suggested by writing about committing mass murders and reading the Bible and praising God ''screams something'' to him.

''I would be very surprised if this kid wasn't sending out lots of signals,'' Dietz said. ``But it also wouldn't be surprising if people around him didn't pick up on them.''

Hernandez's parents told The Herald during earlier interviews that they never had any indication their son was troubled.

''That was not our boy who did that,'' said his father, Manny Hernandez.

The family did not return two calls for comment on Friday.

People who knew Michael Hernandez describe him as a good kid and an A student.

DAY OF THE KILLING

His parents say their first sign of trouble came on the day Jaime was killed, when they learned police had their son in custody.

Jaime was found bleeding to death, his throat slit, in a second-floor bathroom of Southwood around 8:30 a.m. The school immediately went into ''lockdown'' mode, holding students in their first-period classrooms while police swarmed the school.

After investigating for several hours, police zeroed in on Hernandez, who sat in his classroom with spots of blood on his clothing. He apparently had told classmates the stains were from a bloody nose that he had earlier.

A witness had seen him coming out of the bathroom just before Jaime's body was found by a student, according to a police report.

Hernandez will be tried as an adult. If convicted of first-degree murder, he would face a mandatory life sentence with no chance of parole under current state law.

Gov. Jeb Bush said Thursday that he is open-minded and sympathetic to changing sentencing laws for young killers tried as adults.

The law has been criticized in recent years after the first-degree murder conviction of Lionel Tate, who beat to death a 6-year-old playmate. Tate was sentenced to life.

Tate's conviction was overturned, and he was freed earlier this year. He pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and given credit for the three years he served in prison.

Rosenbaum, who is representing Hernandez, was Tate's attorney for the appeal.