The Evidentiary Hearings (decision on juvenile placement) on 12/14-15 were very tedious where IMO, the parties came off as the b-string team-- fortunately they had a very patient Judge.
However, at one point, the Judge called for a break but not before putting his feelings about the parties on record: "You will address the Court, (not each other).. this is not a sandbox, you are in a Court of Law," after DR's defense attorney started tit-for-tat whining at the prosecutor.
From the hearing, reportedly, DR is currently attending middle school classes in detention, 3 times per week. His school sessions range from 60 to 90 minutes per scheduled school day.
Relative to the witnesses called by the Defense to support their Motion, (i.e., move DR back to the Miami-Dade Juvenile Detention facility), a PsyD contractor to the Jail testified that based on two clinical interviews of DR (about 10 mins each), she opined DR is emotionally and cognitively immature.
PsyD also made a referral for DR to be evaluated for competency. I took this to be a general requirement in the juvenile wing and not that anybody had concerns and not a Defense Motion seeking the Court Order an assessment for DR. This will likely be addressed at the next status hearing.
The PsyD witness conducted no intellectual tests, and although the State had DR's elementary and middle school records available for review and consideration, she would not opine on DR's grades, academic performance, or learning disability (ADHD).
I tend to agree that in spite of DR being a good student and getting good grades, IMO, he does present emotionally/cognitively immature --exhibiting limited
attention span, problem-solving skills, or
impulse control, while also unable to understand and manage his own emotions.
I see a youth who probably had all of his needs met by his mother his entire life until around 9 months ago when suddenly, DR is even being asked to ride the bus to school!
The defense excused DR not knowing/memorizing his home address as being part of the cell phone generation.
In the end, hearing the testimony of the detective who attended the autopsy of IG, reality takes a grip that regardless of his young age, this was a vicious, forceful, premeditated attack by DR on his own mother. MOO
