Judge defers decision on teen’s sentence
Defense: Hubler has stayed out of trouble
Although two witnesses indicated that Andrew Hubler should be sentenced as a juvenile, a prosecutor argued Monday that the teen was on a “consistent trajectory of increasingly dangerous criminal behavior,” which had simply paused as his criminal case moves through the court system.
Hubler is one of six teenagers who took part in a property crime spree in June 2015 that left Steven Gerecke shot dead in his driveway. The second half of the hearing to determine whether Hubler should be sentenced as an adult or a juvenile ended with Judge Brett Loveless’ announcement that he would offer a decision at a later date.
Hubler’s attorney, Megan Mitsunaga, emphasized her client’s age at the time of the offense and noted that both a juvenile probation officer and a licensed clinical psychologist agreed that he is amenable to treatment.
“This is a child,” she said. “He was 15 years of age at the time of this incident.”
If Loveless finds that Hubler, 17, is amenable and should be sentenced as a juvenile, he can remain under the court’s jurisdiction only until his 21st birthday. If sentenced as an adult, he faces up to 21 years in prison.
Prosecutor Kevin Holmes said the juvenile probation officer was concerned that Hubler had been idle since his arrest and “was staying home
playing X-box.” Holmes said Hubler found a job and began treatment just days before the amenability hearing.
But Mitsunaga told the judge that Hubler has stayed out of trouble since his arrest and earned a GED. She spoke about an unhealthy home life and the challenges it presented.
“This is a child who, I think, has done more than the bare minimum, given his circumstances, to stay out of trouble,” she said. “The state dings him for just being at home playing on his X-box as opposed to hanging out with the group he was with that night.”
Prosecutor Kevin Holmes said that Hubler, who has been under supervision as the case is pending, has simply taken a break from criminal activity.
“When that pause is done,” he said, “that trajectory is going to continue.”
The “objective evidence and information” in the case that was not “filtered through a lens of hope,” Holmes said, showed Hubler is not amenable to treatment.