A Pulaski County circuit judge has denied a 17-year-old armed robbery suspect's request to be tried in juvenile court, ruling Monday that the justice system for children could do little to reform the defendant, who will turn 18 next month.
Jonathan Deshawn Turner of North Little Rock is charged with four counts of aggravated robbery, accused of robbing three teenagers -- one of them twice -- on two separate occasions in May and July.
With no juvenile convictions, he had petitioned the court to overturn prosecutors' decision to try him as an adult.
According to testimony at Monday's juvenile transfer hearing, Diontae Smitty, 16, was clubbed in the head from behind on May 21 by two strangers who surprised him while he walked near his home. The robbers demanded he give up his cellphone and headphones, warning that he would be shot if he tried to get away.
Eight weeks later, on July 11, Smitty, and two fellow 16-year-olds, Taron Oliver and Kanavion Johnson, were walking in the area of 5400 Camp Robinson Road when two robbers, each with a gun and who were sharing a bicycle, approached them and asked, "Who has the weed? Who has the money?" while searching their backpacks before fleeing empty-handed.
According to testimony, Oliver recognized Turner from school and the other two teens were able to pick him out of a photographic lineup. No other suspects have been identified. Turner was arrested about a month later.
Deputy prosecutors Erica Fitzhugh and Kristin Martin urged Pulaski County Circuit Judge Barry Sims to deny the teen's petition, pointing to testimony that, due to his age, Turner qualifies for almost no juvenile services beyond incarceration, and there's no guarantee he would get those services in juvenile court. The charges, involving guns and violence, demand that he be prosecuted as an adult, Fitzhugh told the judge.
Defense attorney Dorcy Corbin told the judge that Turner is on the "edge of a great abyss," and prosecutors are asking the judge to kick Turner off and turn him into a statistic. She said prosecutors were wrongly portraying the juvenile courts as untrustworthy.
Corbin asked Sims to designate the case as an extended juvenile jurisdiction prosecution, which would open Turner to the possibility of a prison sentence if he's found not to have been rehabilitated by the time he turns 21.
"I'm asking you to save this child and his future," Corbin said. "Don't push him into the dark abyss. Give this child a chance at life."
In denying the transfer request, Sims said there is little that juvenile justice authorities can offer Turner. If Turner is at the edge of the abyss, the judge said, it's the teen's own choices that have brought him there.
"I'm not pushing him off the edge," Sims said. "He walked up and did a swan dive."
The teen did not testify Monday, but his petition was endorsed by psychologist Elizabeth Speck-Kern who said Turner was immature because of his youth and would be an excellent candidate for rehabilitation in the juvenile justice system.
His mother, Rhonda Watson, told the judge Turner has gotten his high school diploma and fathered a child he regularly cares for. His only involvement in the juvenile justice system was a misdemeanor theft charge that was dismissed in 2012 by agreement with prosecutors after he stayed out of further trouble with the law, she said.
Watson said her son never received any juvenile services and that authorities rebuffed her efforts to get help when she had problems with him being disobedient and acting out. She said her son could be helped by the rehabilitation programs available in the juvenile justice system.
Watson said she's had to involve police to help control Turner when he's gotten upset. Questioned by prosecutors about the teen's tattoos, she said he did not have her permission to get them and she doesn't know how he did. Among them are her name on his chest and the Little Rock 501 area code on an arm, Watson told the judge.
She said she's suspected he's been involved in gang activity based on what she's been told about him by school officials and that she thinks he had regularly used marijuana.
Watson told the judge that Turner had moved out of her home in January to live with an older half brother and an associate of her husband's whom she did not know.
She said she and her son had quarreled after he and one of her daughters had gotten into an argument about parenting their respective children and Turner had broken out the windows in the daughter's car.
Metro on 03/18/2015