The Post Editorial: Juveniles facing adult charges in Colorado deserve reverse-transfer hearing consideration.
We won’t know until next year if 16-year-old Jennie Bunsom will be tried as an adult for the death of her nephew Jordan Vong, but that’s the intent of the prosecutors in the case who have filed first-degree murder charges.
For now the decision seems defensible — 7-year-old Vong was found dead in Bunsom’s room tucked into a portable closet, suffocated and wrapped in a blanket, according to court documents.
As horrifying as the case is, however, we are relieved a judge will have the ultimate say in whether Bunsom faces first-degree murder charges as an adult, the result of which could be life behind bars.
The teen’s court-appointed attorney has asked for a review of the case — called a reverse-transfer hearing — which will allow the judge to hold a hearing to determine whether Bunsom should face adult punishments for a crime she committed as a juvenile.
Juveniles in Colorado weren’t always afforded such consideration.
In 2009, 152 juveniles faced direct file charges in adult court, with no review of the prosecutors’ decision.
We supported a change in law in 2010 that led to a precipitous drop in the number of juveniles facing charges as adults: 38 faced such charges in 2011, according to statistics from the Colorado District Attorneys’ Council.
Then in 2012, Gov. John Hickenlooper signed House Bill 1271 giving final say in the matter to district judges.
We opposed the nearly vetoed bill because we argued it went too far limiting prosecutorial authority, and urged the state to track data to ensure that prosecutors were still able to charge youth offenders as adults when appropriate.
Those concerns have not played out. In 2016 there were 43 juveniles facing direct file charges as adults and in 2017 there were 65. So far in 2018 there have been 34 such cases.
The first high-profile case to test the new law was the death of Jessica Ridgeway at the hands of Austin Sigg, a teenager who pleaded guilty to kidnapping and murdering the young girl. His attorneys waived his right to be tried in juvenile court, and Sigg was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole in 40 years.
But that case was a cold-blooded, calculated abduction by a killer who had previously tried to abduct someone.
Bunsom’s court documents make it sound more like a crime of passion committed by a teenager whose brain is still developing.
According to a probable cause statement, Bunsom was upset about an earlier argument with a girlfriend when Jordan Vong went into her room wanting to play video games. She told him to leave. Jordan lay down on her bed and refused to leave the room, according to the document, and Bunsom pushed him off the bed causing him to hit his face on the floor.
When Jordan began to cry “she placed her hand over Jordan’s mouth and plugged his nose as Jordan began to struggle for a few minutes,” the documents said. It’s heartbreaking.
But also sad is the fact that Bunsom had no parents or family members present in the courtroom with her at a hearing where she was advised of her rights, according to reporting by The Denver Post’s Elizabeth Hernandez.
The court appointed a guardian ad litem to help the teen navigate the judicial process.
We could learn in the January reverse-transfer hearings whether Bunsom has shown remorse for the senseless loss of an innocent life, but we are glad there will be a review in this case, something that wouldn’t have happened without a change in law.