Teen charged in shooting of Smithfield classmate argues to stay in juvenile court

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LOGAN — A judge is expected to decide Tuesday whether one of two teens accused of a plot to shoot and kill a 14-year-old girl should face his charges in adult court.

Prosecutors say that while the 16-year-old isn't accused of pulling the trigger, he was the first to suggest his friend harm Deserae Turner when he became annoyed by frequent Snapchat messages from her.

"(The teen) wanted Deserae Turner to die," prosecutor Spencer Walsh said in opening arguments of a retention hearing Monday.

The bulk of Monday's hearing focused on testimony from two expert witnesses called by the defense to discuss the effects that possible ADHD has had on the boy and his adolescent mind, while an expert witness for the state sought to undercut and discredit their assessments.

In a report from psychologist Ronald Houston, he wrote that during his evaluation he asked the teen if he had thought much about Deserae in the hours after the shooting.

The boy replied, "She kind of slipped my mind."

When he was asked if he ever wondered whether she had died, he said, "A little."

The boys formed a premeditated murder plot to put an end to Deserae's messages and lured the girl to join them after school on Feb. 16 under the guise of buying a knife, according to prosecutors. They are accused of then shooting her once in the back of the head at close range, stealing her belongings and leaving her in a dry section of a dirty canal in Smithfield.

Deserae was found hours later by family friends. She spent some time in a medically induced coma, and after awaking, she spoke to police about what little she remembers from that day.

Following a remarkable recovery, Deserae spoke to media as she was released from the hospital April 20, expressing her gratitude for the countless strangers who thought about her and prayed for her recovery. The girl said she is "tougher than a bullet," noting that the .22-caliber bullet is irretrievably lodged in her skull.

However, in his opening statement Monday, Walsh said Deserae is in some ways like a toddler in a teenager's body, and is continually fighting not to lose mobility in the left half of her body.

The boy's attorney, Shannon Demler, says the 16-year-old's case is best suited for the juvenile system considering his client's age, cognitive development, problems with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, apparent receptive attitude toward counseling and lack of a criminal record.

Demler's opening statement also hearkened back to a preliminary hearing in March, saying his client didn't know Deserae and, other than statements from the other accused teen, there is little evidence linking the boy to the attack.

Throughout the hearing, the tall boy, whose sweeping blond hairstyle has now been cut short, took notes or stared quietly forward, fidgeting his foot almost constantly as he sat with his feet and hands shackled.

The two teenage boys are both charged as juveniles with attempted aggravated murder, a first-degree felony; aggravated robbery, a first-degree felony; and four counts of obstruction of justice, a second-degree felony.

The alleged gunman has also been ordered to stand trial in the case and faces his own retention hearing beginning May 8.

During the first day of the retention hearing for the accomplice, which will continue Tuesday, the boy's parents were called to the stand where they testified about their son's struggles in school as he grew up.

On the witness stand, the boy's mother said he and his twin brother are the youngest of her five children. They were born premature, she said, and as the smaller of the twins, the boy now charged in Deserae's assault, struggled as an infant.

Growing up, the mother said her son struggled with speech in his younger years and completing homework as he got older. While the boy's father said he believed his son was experiencing ADHD, his mother resisted testing or treatment.

The parents also discussed their son's struggle with their divorce in January 2016, saying he spent some time seeing a counselor afterward. They also testified their son has had no criminal history and no major disciplinary problems.

Overall, the mother insisted her son "isn't typically a violent kid."

Psychologist Randal Oster, called by the defense, testified that after interviewing the boy he was "fairly convinced he has ADHD characteristics." He also noted that the boy appears to be somewhat delayed as he processes information.

Oster noted that, because teenagers' brains aren't fully developed, in general they're more reckless and impulsive than adults. In case of a teenager with ADHD, "They are going to be even more impulsive than the average 16-year-old," he said.

Pressed by Walsh on cross-examination, Oster acknowledged that he wouldn't call a detailed murder plot planned over time to be an impulsive action.

Oster testified he did not question the teen about the allegations against him.

Houston echoed Oster's opinion that the teen could possibly have ADHD and that condition would have an impact on his ability to make decisions.

While he did question the boy about the shooting, he said he did not press him when the teen was "somewhat guarded" and gave obviously untruthful or contradictory answers, saying it would undermine his ability to complete the rest of the evaluation.

During tense cross-examination of the two experts, Walsh insinuated their work was "sloppy" and incomplete, failing to evaluate the teen on any details relating to the allegations against him. The two men insisted they were retained to perform quick clinical evaluations about the boy's mental and emotional status, not forensic evaluations about the case.

Prosecutors countered by calling their own expert witnesses whose testimony sought exclusively to cut down the two assessments presented by the defense.

Psychologist Stephen Golding testified that he was called to go over the findings of the two evaluators but not to examine the boy himself. After reviewing the two reports, he said there were a number of questions the defense's evaluators should have considered as they spoke to the teen, including the allegations he faced, a shell casing from the alleged attack that police say he kept as a "memento," and whether he poses a risk to the community.

Prosecutors on Tuesday are expected to call the teen's twin brother to the witness stand, as well as police and members of Deserae's family.