Bond set at $1M as judge weighs adult court
SCHOOL SHOOTING
URBANA — As a Champaign County judge nears the final steps toward her decision over whether the teenager charged in the Jan. 20 shooting at West Liberty-Salem High School will be transferred to adult court, 17-year-old Ely Serna now has his first chance at freedom since his arrest that day.
On Wednesday, defense attorney Dennis Lieberman conceded that prosecutors have enough evidence to move the case along to its next stage. But a couple of options remain for what happens next.
Ohio law had allowed that certain juvenile cases — ones in which the defendant was of a certain age and where the crimes committed were considered violent and serious enough, such as Serna’s — be automatically transferred to Common Pleas Court, where the juvenile would be tried as an adult. But the Ohio Supreme Court ruled in December that the automatic process violated a defendant’s rights.
As a result of that ruling, Serna’s case has been going through a required multi-stage process and he has remained in custody at a Marysville juvenile-detention center.
But two weeks ago, the Ohio Supreme Court reversed its own earlier decision.
So Champaign County Prosecutor Kevin Talebi on Wednesday renewed his request to have the case automatically transferred to adult court.
Lieberman objected, and said he wants one more hearing where Juvenile Court Judge Lori Reisinger must determine whether Serna is a reasonable candidate for rehabilitation in the juvenile-justice system before she can decide whether to transfer.
The judge said she would issue her rulings on both matters in writing soon. In the meantime, she said Serna is now eligible for bond: She set it at $1 million.
He faces 13 charges in connection with the shooting, the most serious among them two counts of attempted murder.
Authorities say Serna carried his own disassembled shotgun into the high school in his backpack on Jan. 20 and then reassembled it in a bathroom stall. He left the stall after the first bell rang, only to be surprised when Logan Cole, who was a 16-year-old junior then, entered the bathroom.
Serna shot Cole once in the back and in the chest at close range, authorities said. They said he then fired the gun into the hallway and into two classrooms, before retreating and surrendering to administrators. Authorities have never named his intended target or a motive.
Cole was critically injured but is recovering. A second student, Adam Schultz, had a minor pellet wound.
Though Talebi said he thinks it is unlikely the Serna family would raise the money necessary for the bond, he objected to any amount at all.
“The state has great concern for the safety of the community,” he told the judge.
If Serna does post bond, he must abide by many restrictions that Reisinger put in place. Those include wearing a GPS ankle monitor, being supervised by an adult 24 hours a day, and having no contact with Cole, Schultz or any students, teachers or administrators in the school district.
Talebi said all were victims that day.
In addition, the judge said, Serna would have to live with his mother and stepfather, and there could be no guns in the home.