BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KBAK/KBFX) — A 15-year-old charged with first-degree murder with special circumstances, a gang enhancement and personally using a firearm to cause death cannot be tried as an adult under a California law that applies to children under 15, a restriction that drew sharp criticism from the district attorney.
On the courthouse steps moments after the charges were filed, District Attorney Zimmer said the decision is not discretionary. “It’s not our choice. I’m not happy about it. This is not some sort of district attorney discretion. It is the law.”
Zimmer said that under the law, even a first-degree murder conviction in juvenile court can result in a limited period of confinement. “Even if convicted of first-degree murder, the confinement time is anywhere from four to seven years. For first degree murder, four to seven years,” she said.
The law is intended to focus on rehabilitation, but Zimmer said that approach does not fit every case. “I believe very strongly in rehabilitation for juvenile offenders. But it comes to the point where certain offenders are so dangerous and are committing crimes like an adult that they should be treated like an adult in adult court,” she said.
In addition to the murder-related counts, the teen also faces charges of possession of a firearm by a prohibited person and a probation violation tied to crimes committed before the shooting. Zimmer said, “His crimes were escalating in seriousness, and he was convicted of an assault with a deadly weapon with a knife on his mother.”
Defense attorney Marc Anthony Raimondo said he supports SB-1391, the law limiting adult prosecution for younger teens, even while acknowledging the impact on victims’ families. “I think the statute’s good. I think in this particular situation, sure on paper it sounds super tragic. He’ll be out someday; the family won’t get full justice. But in general, though the concept of rehabilitation is a great idea,” Raimondo said. “For all of us, I think the dollar well spent is on rehabilitation and not just on punishment. And that’s just my criminal defense attorney perspective.”
Raimondo also argued that reducing gang violence requires broader changes beyond rewriting a single statute. “I think of all the areas to change, there’s a lot more work to be done at home than to be done at the legislator trying to change this one specific law,” he said. “I think we go work on our process of probation. We can work on our process of being family-oriented. We can try to put less dads in prison. There’s a hundred things I can think of that could, you know, fix the soil where this grew out of as opposed to just fixing the one bud that grew bad out of it.”