Judge refuses to throw out teen’s confession
A judge has denied a request by Ely Serna, who is charged in last year’s school shooting at West Liberty-Salem High School, to throw out the confession the teenager gave to a detective that day.
Serna’s lawyers had argued the confession shouldn’t be allowed as trial evidence because he didn’t understand his rights when he gave it.
Champaign County Common Pleas Judge Nick Selvaggio denied the request to suppress the confession. He ruled in a decision filed Wednesday that Serna spoke freely after acknowledging that he understood his rights, including against self-incrimination.
“The Court finds that the Defendant was properly advised of his Miranda rights in a non-aggressive, noncoercive and non-threatening manner,” Selvaggio wrote.
Juveniles don’t have greater constitutional rights than adults, the judge added, and they don’t have a statutory right to have counsel present at interrogations conducted before the filing of a juvenile complaint. Also, juveniles are not vested with the right to be accompanied by a parent or guardian during interrogation.
“A juvenile may waive his Miranda rights with or without parental consent so long as the totality of the circumstances demonstrate that the waiver was made knowingly, intelligently and voluntarily,” Selvaggio wrote.
Serna, 18, who was a 17-year-old senior at the school at the time of the shooting, will be tried as an adult.
He has pleaded not guilty to two counts of attempted murder and other felonies in connection with the Jan. 20, 2017, shooting at the rural Champaign County high school. Authorities say he hid in a bathroom stall, assembled a shotgun that he had brought in a backpack, pulled on a homemade mask and prepared to storm the halls.
Logan Cole, then a 16-yearold junior, walked into the bathroom and startled Serna, who shot Cole twice. Cole was critically wounded but survived. Serna then fired at a teacher and into two classrooms before surrendering. No motive or his intended targets have ever been publicly disclosed.
Serna’s trial is scheduled to begin April 10.