A 15-year-old Pierce County boy accused of aggravated murder stands a good chance of rehabilitation if he is treated within the state’s juvenile justice system, a psychiatrist testified on Wednesday.
The boy is “like a child that has not been raised adequately, and he needs several more years of raising,” Dr. Delton Young of Bellevue told Snohomish County Superior Court Judge Gerald Knight.
The teen is accused of murder and other crimes in the June 26 attack on Larry Kloes, 49, of Snohomish. Prosecutors have said he was the ringleader in the attack who got two other teens to burglarize Kloes’ house and kill him.
The state wants to charge the boy into adult court, where the punishment for aggravated murder is life in prison without release.
Knight must decide whether to let juvenile authorities maintain jurisdiction. As a juvenile, he could only be kept in custody until he turns 21. The boy’s attorney, Richard Wogsland of Everett, is attempting to show that with the right structure and programs, the boy would respond to treatment in the juvenile system and change his ways.
The hearing, which started Monday, continues today with Wogsland and deputy prosecutor Matt Hunter arguing their cases. Knight is expected to give his decision today.
The Herald does not normally name juvenile defendants unless they are charged in adult court.
Young said he spent several hours interviewing and testing the 15-year-old, read countless police reports and witness statements, and talked with the boy’s mother and grandmother,
He told the judge the boy may show an ability to manipulate at times but doesn’t have “the type of psychopathic character generally considered difficult to rehabilitate.”
He said the teen had an unstable childhood, with drugs and abuse within the family, and basically raised himself. He started acting out about when he was 11 years old and never developed “trust in the outside world,” Young testified.
He said anger management, vocational training and other programs at the juvenile Green Hill School in Chehalis would give him the structure, therapy and training he needs to acquire a “moral compass he has been unable to develop.”
The boy “needs a father figure or a very strong mother figure willing to lay down the rules and enforce them,” Young testified. “We’re talking about a kid who hasn’t been raised, and he needs to be raised.”
Prosecutors say the 15-year-old recruited two others to accompany him to the Kloes’ home. Perry Marshall Rothermel, 18, of Puyallup, allegedly attacked Kloes with a baseball bat, seriously injuring him. Then, prosecutors say, Jeremy Richard Boone, 16, shot Kloes in the head three times while Rothermel held a pillow over the victim’s head.
Boone has pleaded guilty to murder and other charges, and faces about 40 years in prison. Boone told Knight earlier this week that the idea of robbing and killing Kloes was the 15-year-old’s. He testified the attack was meant as revenge. Kloes had previously turned him in to police.
Rothermel remains charged with first-degree murder, first-degree burglary and first-degree robbery.
Reporter Jim Haley: 425-339-3447 or haley@heraldnet.com.
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