SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Youth advocacy groups said a 15-year-old boy charged with raping and killing an 8-year-old neighbor in the California city of Santa Cruz was too young to understand what he has been accused of doing.
Police said Adrian Jerry Gonzalez lured Madyson Middleton to his family's apartment in the complex where they lived, then hid her body in a recycling bin.
He was being prosecuted as an adult.
Sue Burrell, an attorney with the Youth Law Center based in San Francisco, said Friday that the district attorney should have asked a judge whether Gonzalez should be tried as an adult and possibly subjected to lengthier, more severe penalties.
Advocates for crime victims said a jury has been equipped to decide whether Gonzalez deserves life in adult prison.
(Copyright 2015 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
