LITTLE ROCK — A 19-year-old Sherwood man, accused of starting a house fire two years ago that killed his grandmother, will be prosecuted in juvenile court, a Pulaski County circuit judge has ruled, describing the evidence supporting his decision as “clear and convincing.”
Anthony Michael Goins was charged with manslaughter and arson for the June 2008 blaze at the home he shared with 72-year-old Marietta Mae Goins. Prosecutors opposed transferring his case to juvenile court, in part because the system only has jurisdiction over Goins until his 21st birthday in January 2012, about 15 months away. He faced a maximum penalty of 40 years in prison as an adult.
Goins, who was burned in the fire, has denied any wrongdoing, saying his injuries came from trying to save the elderly woman. He has said authorities were blaming him for the blaze because they couldn’t figure out how it started.
In his two-page decision issued Monday, a week after Goins’ lawyer Brandy Turner pleaded in court for the judge to give the teen a “chance” at rehabilitation, Judge Herb Wright ruled that resources available to a juvenile-court judge “would be likely to rehabilitate” Goins before he turns 21.
Wright’s decision, based in part on a mental evaluation by state doctors and records from the teen’s several commitments to private mental institutions, is guided by 10 factors required by Arkansas Code Annotated 9-27-318 for a judge to consider before transferring a case.
The judge also found that:
Testimony from the hearing doesn’t show the offenses were committed in an aggressive, violent and premeditated manner.
Goins has no prior criminal history.
Goins appears to the court to have a low level of sophistication and maturity for his age.
No one knows for sure how the fire ignited, police have said, but a lighter was found on Goins’ bed.
At a hearing last week, police testimony showed Goins has been repeatedly institutionalized for behavioral problems at home and at school that include fire-starting, threats to start fires, physical aggression against his family and threats against his grandmother. Investigators said that after his grandmother died, no one in his family would take him in because they were scared of him.
State doctors diagnosed Goins as mentally ill, suffering from a mood disorder, but found him fit to stand trial. Court records show that Goins inherited about $49,000 from his grandmother’s estate, about a third of its worth, a week before his April 2009 arrest, but he reported he was indigent when he was arraigned three months later in circuit court.
He was free on bail until December, when prosecutors had him arrested in connection with break-ins or thefts at area churches within the time frame of about a month. Those arrests never led to felony charges.
Arkansas, Pages 12 on 09/29/2010