Media teen to be tried as an adult in Chesco attack
» A Common Pleas Court judge has ruled that the Delaware County youth who attacked an East Brandywine woman in her home, leaving her bound and gagged for days, should be held in Chester County Prison without bail while he awaits trial as an adult.
Judge John Hall made the ruling at the recommendation of the prosecutor, Assistant District Attorney Christine Abatemarco, and the Chester County Office of Probation and Pre-Trial Services, which acts as the county bail agency. A representative of the agency noted that the youth, Khemmathat Fariss, had already escaped from two supervised programs and had committed a serious violent crime, making him unsafe in the community.
An attorney from the law firm of Frankel Kershenbaum of Bryn Mawr, Grace Osa-Edoh, representing Fariss, did not object to the recommendation.
Fariss, 17, of Media, did not address the court, and was led from the courtroom in handcuffs and ankle shackles to be transferred to the prison. He had been held in the county Youth Center for juvenile offenders since his arrest in February.
The victim in the case, a 72-year-old woman who lived alone at the secluded home along the Brandywine Creek, watched the brief proceeding from the court gallery but did not testify.
Hall last week had ordered Fariss’s case transferred to Common Pleas Court from Juvenile Court and that he be tried as an adult, deciding that the matter would best be addressed there because Fariss did not appear amenable to the treatment and supervision he would receive in the juvenile system, On Friday, he issued an order explaining his decision.
“After 10 years presiding over Juvenile Court matters, this court has never evaluated a juvenile case less suggestive of success within the juvenile system,” hall wrote in his four-page order. “The loss of a child to the adult system is never sought and is always tragic. But although he court routinely works with young people damaged by early childhood neglect and trauma, it cannot do so under these circumstances without disregarding the law and violating its duty to protect the public.”
Hall paid particular attention to the nature of the crime that Fariss — a native of Thailand who was adopted by an American family when he was 6 years old after being in an orphanage there — is alleged to have committed; the impact it had on the woman; his previous history as a juvenile delinquent; and the possibility of rehabilitation through supervision and psychological treatment in the juvenile system.
The judge viewed the allegations of Fariss’s crime as showing “a high degree of criminal sophistication by a highly cunning and calloused individual, bent on using extreme violence to accomplish his criminal objectives.”
According to testimony at a hearing in the case on June 30, Fariss had wanted to get away from the Devereaux Foundation facility to which he had been assigned as part of his juvenile cases in Delaware County, which included two home burglaries. He complained that he was being bullied there, and wanted to live “a life on the road.”
He walked away from the facility in Wallace on Feb. 22, and spotted a home whose garage door as open. He broke in, took items he would use to make his getaway, and waited for hours for the woman he’d seen leaving that morning to return so he could steal her car. He attacked her from behind, strangled her, and told her, “You’ll be with Jesus soon.”
After locking her in a closet, Fariss drove to Maryland, where he stayed for two days. He returned to Devereaux, but hid the car and did not tell anyone about the woman, who he assumed was seriously injured. When police discovered his involvement in the crime, they noted that he had used bleach on his shoes to hide the blood on them and had stripped the car of identifying features, then hidden it in the woods behind the facility.
“The evidence reveals that (Fariss) had thoroughly planned this criminal episode, took extensive efforts to conceal himself and his deeds, and manipulated his return to Devereaux in a manner that would offer him as future opportunity for flight and crime,” Hall wrote.
The victim, said the judge, was devastated by the attack, in which he had to fight for her life and was found by a relative dehydrated, malnourished, bruised and battered. “This once confident and independent 72-year-old woman can no longer live in her house or work,” Hall stated. “She is emotionally broken, subject to nightmares, continued physical discomfort from her wounds and post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms.”
Fariss’s “criminal behavior and lack of regard for court supervision are escalating,” the judge wrote. He was adjudicated delinquent on the two Delaware County burglaries in October, but cut off the home confinement GPS he had been ordered to wear and fled to Maryland. When he was caught and returned home, he was placed at Devereux, but within a month had walked away and attacked the woman, he said. Thus, he would not have been suitable to be placed in a non-secure facility if he was to be treated as a juvenile.
And even if he had been, Hall said there was no assurance that he would work with counselors in rehabilitation. The psychologist hired by his defense to assess his chances of rehabilitation estimated he needed at least two years of treatment, and would continue to pose a danger to the community while in placement. But Hall noted that Fariss had told another psychologist, Bruce Mapes of Exton, that he had no interest in treatment, and had failed at previous attempts.
He is charged with attempted homicide, robbery, burglary, aggravated assault, strangulation, and related offenses. If convicted, he would face the possibility of being incarcerated at a state prison.