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Suspect's journal heavy on violence

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

MIAMI -- A 14-year-old charged with killing a classmate kept a personal journal that fixated on violence and scrawled the words "will become a serial killer" at the bottom of a printout on mass murderers.

Forty-one pages of personal jottings, doodlings, lists and jumbled thoughts of Michael Hernandez were released Friday by the state attorney's office after a public records request.

The final five pages in the 41-page journal looked like lists in the making with the headings: weapons, weapon ideas, names, body count and what was done. Two pages were withheld by prosecutors.

Hernandez was indicted as an adult on a first-degree murder charge in the slashing death of friend and fellow eighth-grader Jaime Rodrigo Gough. The 14-year-old victim was killed in a middle school lavatory before classes started Feb. 3 in affluent, suburban Palmetto Bay.

Defense attorney Richard Rosenbaum said the writings did not look like the work of an ordered mind, but he said he had no comment on the evidence itself.

He also would not say if he would pursue an insanity defense or make Hernandez's mental competency an issue. But Rosenbaum said he is awaiting reports from a team of doctors.

The note "will become a serial killer" was on a six-page copy of an Internet article on criminal profiling titled "Mass murderers, spree killers and serial murderers" that describes typical childhoods.

Drawings in the margins by a section on serial murderers include a hangman. The words appear in a section on "acting out" describing a potential murderer turning in an actual one and the selection of another victim.

Hernandez wrote a list of violent movies and video games; kept instructions for making a bomb, detonator and Molotov cocktails; drew stylized crosses and a side view of killing a bound figure with a suspended, spinning blade; and wrote "White Power" under a swastika.

A page of bullet items lists: "carve cross, take right eye, leave note, … you will be a serial killer and mass murderer, stay alone, never forget God ever, have a cult and plan a mass kidnapping for new world, … be an expert thief etc., how many weapons."

Four pages crammed with script are punctuated with the words "stop writing" and "perfect etc." Hernandez listed daily tasks including body building routines, work on computers, homework and Bible reading. Another half page of text has every word crossed out.

Florida's broad public records law allows for the release of most law enforcement documents after they are given to defense attorneys. The state attorney's office did not specify who made the request to release the papers.

Last modified: March 20. 2004 12:00AM