Judge to rule on adult or juvenile trial for teen accused of killing 8-year-old girl

SANTA CRUZ » Closing arguments ended Wednesday in a hearing to decide whether Adrian “A.J.” Gonzalez will be charged as a juvenile or an adult in the rape and murder of Maddy Middleton. The hearing marks a crossroads in a case that continues more than two years after the 8-year-old girl’s body was found in a dumpster at the Tannery Arts Center in what has been called one of the most shocking crimes in the history of the county.

If Gonzalez, who turns 18 Friday, is tried as a juvenile, he would be eligible for release from a juvenile treatment and detention facility in less than about five years.

If tried as an adult, Gonzalez could face life imprisonment.

Santa Cruz County Superior Court Judge John Salazar will have one week to decide the matter.

Salazar is tasked with weighing the facts of the case using factors codified by state law: the gravity and sophistication of the crimes, any mitigating circumstances, the likelihood of rehabilitation and Gonzalez’s track record of both delinquency and reform.

The prosecution and defense each spent more than an hour articulating their closing arguments Tuesday in front of a packed courtroom that included a number of Middleton’s family members, for whom emotions ran high as the events of July 26, 2015, were recapped in painful detail.

Gonzalez is accused of luring Middleton into his mother’s empty apartment with ice cream then choking her into unconsciousness, raping her, stabbing her in the neck multiple times, wrapping her in garbage bags and placing her unconscious body in a dumpster, where she died.

Assistant District Attorney Rafael Vazquez argued that Gonzalez showed an unprecedented degree of sophistication and barbarism.

“On July 26, 2015, the defendant A.J. Gonzalez fixated, premeditated, deliberated, sexually penetrated and mutilated the 8-yearold girl Maddy Middleton,” Vazquez said.

Vazquez argued that evidence indicating Gonzalez became sexually aroused after he believed Middleton to be dead together is particularly alarming, and said he believes Gonzalez to be beyond the reach of rehabilitation.

“We’re talking about pedophilia. We’re talking about necrophilia. We’re talking about lifelong disorders,” he said, adding that he believes the facts show Gonzalez did not show remorse at any point during the murder, rape and disposal of the body to which he reportedly confessed in an interview with investigators in 2015.

“We can’t risk creating a situation where it’s going to be like a revolving door,” Vazquez said.

Gonzalez’s attorney, public defender Larry Biggam, argued that because Gonzalez was 15 years old at the time of the murder he is a good candidate for rehabilitation.

“Horrible does not equal incorrigible,” Biggam said, comparing Gonzalez’s developing brain to a Ferrari engine without a brake system.

Biggam also pushed back against the prosecution’s argument that Gonzalez demonstrated sophistication, pointing to how Gonzalez had seemed surprised when police told him he couldn’t go home after he confessed to the murder.

“The kid was completely clueless and intellectually immature,” Biggam said.

Biggam highlighted evidence of Gonzalez’s troubled upbringing, including neglect and physical and emotional abuse resulting in a number of brushes with child protective services, police and school counselors that Biggam said should have, but failed to, intervene.

And he said records and testimony from the two years Gonzalez has spent in juvenile detention #xad;-which include improved academic performance — show that Gonzalez is already responding to intervention.

One attendee who remained unswayed by Biggam’s argument was Middleton’s maternal grandfather, Bruce Jordan.

“I don’t think he should be let loose on society again and I do not think the juvenile court system is capable of treating his problems,” Jordan told the Sentinel after the hearing.

Karen Cook of Watsonville is a friend of Middleton’s family who echoed that sentiment.

“No matter what, nothing is bringing Maddy back but we need to prevent this from ever happening again,” Cook said. “He needs to be gone forever.”