A mentally disabled teenager seen in an Internet video getting his 3-year-old nephew to smoke a small cigar possibly laced with marijuana must be prosecuted as an adult, a Pulaski County circuit judge has ruled.
Attorneys for Lamel Lamont Yancy, 17, of North Little Rock had asked Judge Leon Johnson to transfer his criminal charges to juvenile court for an opportunity at rehabilitation through programs and counseling offered to teen offenders.
Prosecutors Katie Hinojosa and Jeanna Sherrill argued that Yancy should be prosecuted as an adult since he's almost 18 and because the juvenile court will lose jurisdiction over him when he reaches that age in June.
The judge ruled that Yancy's best chance to get help appears to be in adult court, after hearing testimony that the teenager has an IQ of 40, less than half of what is considered average intelligence. One doctor reported the teen functions on the same level as a kindergartner, his lawyers said.
If Yancy is convicted, he can be required to enroll in programs and have the court monitor his progress and participation, the judge said.
Yancy's age and intellectual disability presented a unique challenge in how to proceed, Johnson said.
"I believe it belongs in juvenile court, but I don't believe he can get services in juvenile court," the judge said. "He needs services more than anything else. It's a hard call for me."
Yancy's low IQ severely restricts the number of rehabilitative and occupational programs for which he can qualify, according to testimony at Tuesday's transfer hearing.
Scott Tanner, an independent monitor of the juvenile-justice system, told the judge that most programs require participants to have an IQ of at least 70, because people with lesser cognitive functioning require more intensive personal instruction.
A priority for someone in Yancy's position would be job training, and there are not significantly more programs available in the juvenile-justice system for him than there are for adults with low IQs, according to Tanner, who testified as an expert witness on the juvenile system.
The teen had been in juvenile court on a misdemeanor battery charge, but that judge, Joyce Warren, dismissed the case in February 2016 after two doctors determined Yancy was not fit to proceed based on his low intellectual functioning, defense attorney Lew Marczuck told the judge.
That finding by a judge requires that a defendant be committed to the state Department of Human Services for further evaluation, but Warren did not do that, Marczuck said. Doing so also would have allowed Yancy access to the kind of training programs he needs, according to testimony.
Yancy told North Little Rock investigators that what he gave the toddler was a small cigar that did not contain marijuana. He said it was a Black & Mild cigarello, a popular, inexpensive brand available in different flavors, according to testimony.
Yancy is charged with introducing a controlled substance into the body of another, a Class C felony, and misdemeanor marijuana possession, charges that carry up to 10 years in prison.
He was arrested in September after detective Ashley Noel, investigating another case in which she was using Facebook, came across a video apparently posted by Yancy.
A brief clip from the 12-minute recording circulated around the world after Yancy's September arrest, but prosecutor Ashley Bowen played the complete video for the judge. It shows Yancy in a car passenger seat lighting the cigar and giving it to the child. Yancy calls the cigar a "blunt," slang for a hollowed-cigar filled with marijuana.
"You want to hit the blunt? You want to hit the gas?" he asks as he hands the lit cigar to the child.
"Yeah," the boy calls out.
The toddler takes it, puts it to his mouth and appears to smoke it.
"Hit the blunt, man," Yancy says. "Hit the blunt one more time."
The video shows the toddler smoking twice, then Yancy takes it away, sounding like he's concerned the toddler has inhaled too much.
"Hey, hey, that's enough, baby," Yancy says.
The Internet clip doesn't show the child's mother getting into the car and angrily chiding Yancy, who laughingly tells her the boy is intoxicated.
"Hey, girl ... he high already," he says.
Several times, the toddler appears to be playfully calling out "weed," which is slang for marijuana. He's also heard coughing.
The toddler's mother, Bianca Moore, was not arrested, although the Department of Human Services has placed the family under supervision.
A hair-follicle test on the toddler at Arkansas Children's Hospital showed that the boy's hair contained metabolized cocaine and marijuana. Traces also were found on his hair, Bowen told the judge.
The test showed he had been exposed either by inhalation or ingestion over the previous three months, the length of time necessary for the drugs to be processed by his body to show up in his hair, the prosecutor said.
Yancy did not testify on Tuesday, but his mother, Latonya Latresia Jones, told the judge that the video shocked and angered her.
"I really wanted to fight him," she said.
She doesn't tolerate drug use in their home, she said. The only person she knows who uses drugs who has been around her grandson is her daughter's boyfriend, "Coast," Jones testified.
Yancy's actions in the video reflect his childlike way of thinking, Jones said, telling the judge Yancy behaves more like his 9-year-old sister than a teenager almost 18.
He'd blocked her from seeing his Facebook page, but after his arrest, she looked at it, saying she saw "lots of kiddie stuff," reflecting Yancy's interest in playing video games. She said he appeared to have been emulating on Facebook what he had seen in those games, particularly Grand Theft Auto. He might have claimed to be a drug dealer, but that was just posing, Jones said.
Yancy is the third youngest of her six children, who range in age from 9 to 23. He was diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and has been taking prescription medication for that, the 38-year-old Jones testified.
Questioned by defense attorney Harrison Tome, she said Yancy was a challenging child, "like five children rolled into one body." He did not walk until he was 4 years old, and by age 10, could not read. He could barely read at 15, she testified.
He struggled in school, an ordeal made worse by regular bullying from other students that led to fights, she said. Jones told the judge she encouraged him to study and tried to keep him out of trouble.
"I did what a mother was supposed to do," she said.
Metro on 03/09/2017