Judge decides on adult murder trial for teen

LITTLE ROCK — A teenage murder suspect who prosecutors have suggested is a psychopath must stand trial as an adult, Pulaski County Circuit Judge Wendell Griffen ruled Thursday, rejecting arguments by the 17-year-old’s lawyers that he could be rehabilitated through the juvenile-justice system.

The decision was handed down exactly two weeks before Kaelon Duwon Presley of Little Rock turns 18. Charged with capital murder and evidence tampering, Presley was a 16-year-old 11th grader at Parkview Arts and Science High School in December 2019 when police say he admitted to fatally shooting his mother, Shondra Laney Miller, at the home they shared on Brush Creek Avenue in the Woodland Ridge subdivision between Geyer Springs and Hilaro Springs roads.

Miller’s death was an isolated, impulsive incident that Presley deeply regrets, public defender Cheryl Barnard stated in court filings. But the teen is still an ideal candidate for the rehabilitative resources offered in juvenile court, she told the judge.

Presley has never been in trouble with the law before and has the education, intelligence and social skills to succeed in the juvenile system, Barnard said, arguing that if Presley is classified as an extended juvenile-justice offender, he would be in state custody until he turns 21, at which point a judge would determine whether he had been successful. An adverse ruling could put Presley in prison, possibly for life, she said.

Further, Presley has never shown a pattern of violence, and the best available testing to predict violent tendencies in teenagers shows that “Kaelon is a low risk for reoffending and has a high likelihood of rehabilitation,” Barnard told the judge.

Society would best be served by allowing Presley the opportunity at redemption, she said.

“Although Kaelon admits to committing the offenses alleged, the protection of society does not require him to be prosecuted in adult circuit court. Kaelon’s actions that day were an isolated incident and do not constitute a repetitive pattern of violence,” Barnard stated in court filings. “The [prosecution] fails to present any evidence that Kaelon has ever been involved in a criminal investigation in the past or that society would require Kaelon to only be prosecuted in adult court as he has never been adjudicated in juvenile court.”

In written arguments to the judge, deputy prosecturo Michael Wright described Miller’s slaying as an execution deliberately carried out by her only child.

That’s reason enough to try him as an adult, the prosecutor argued.

The decision was handed down exactly two weeks before Kaelon Duwon Presley of Little Rock turns 18.