Two doctors to study eighth grader charged in Miami school killing
By CATHERINE WILSON Associated Press Posted
April 13 2004, 4:32 PM EDT
MIAMI --Two doctors were named by a judge Tuesday to study the mental competency of an eighth grader charged with a frenzied stabbing attack that killed a 14-year-old classmate in their middle school restroom.
A psychiatrist suggested by the prosecutor and a psychologist named by the judge will be asked to produce confidential reports by May 20 in the first official analysis of Michael Hernandez, 14, who was charged as an adult with killing Jaime Gough at Southwood Middle School before classes Feb. 3.
Defense attorney Richard Rosenbaum proposed examinations by any of three nationally known experts on juvenile competency, but prosecutor Carin Kaghan opposed outsiders as too expensive.
``There's nothing to indicate that we need to go to a national-level expert to evaluate competency,'' Kaghan told Circuit Judge Henry Leyte-Vidal. Hernandez, who is being held without bail, was not present at the hearing.
His personal journal had an eight-step planning list for the restroom knifings of Jaime and a 13-year-old classmate, a hit list naming the two boys and Hernandez's 21-year-old sister, lists of violent movies and video games and printouts from the Internet on mass killers and bomb recipes.
Prosecutors are seeking access to Hernandez's medical and school records. If the judge agrees, the doctors could use them when evaluating the eighth grader. The doctors will consider whether he is mentally fit to go to trial and able to help with his defense.
``I intend on trying to distinguish between a child and adult,'' Rosenbaum said outside court. ``We have to look at the kid not as a typical adult because he's not a typical adult.''
Prosecutors have released the journal, three witness interviews and most of a confession by Hernandez, but Rosenbaum complained that the state was ``holding things back,'' starting with the police report on the attack.
Hernandez faces a mandatory life prison sentence if convicted at trial of first-degree murder. Jaime was stabbed at least 40 times in the neck, face and right hand, a medical examiner found. Both jugular veins were severed, and his windpipe was opened with a 4-inch slash.
John Spencer, a defense psychologist, said last week that the wounds speak ``to the severe disturbance of the person who inflicted them.''
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