It will be a few weeks before Jasper County Circuit Court Judge David Mouton makes a ruling on whether Memorial Middle School shooter Thomas Gregory White, 14, will be returned to juvenile court. Coverage of Friday's hearing was included in today's Joplin Globe:
By Jeff Lehr
A Jasper County judge heard arguments Friday on a motion by attorneys for 14-year-old Thomas White, certified to stand trial as an adult for a Joplin school-shooting incident, to remand the case to juvenile court.
Circuit Judge David Mouton said at the conclusion of the hearing that he is not as yet inclined to send the case back to juvenile court.
"As I've indicated, the court is not convinced by any of the arguments that the statute passed by the Missouri Legislature is unconstitutional," Mouton said of a 1995 change in state law that lowered the minimum age of juveniles for certification to stand trial as adults from 14 to 12.
Mouton said he also does not view it as his job as a trial judge to be ruling on the constitutionality of acts of the Legislature.
But the judge delayed a decision on the motion to remand until he has a chance to read a particular case cited by White’s attorneys at the hearing. Mouton also gave those attorneys time to file any additional arguments they wish to make with respect to the motion.
The judge set July 6 as the deadline for any further written arguments on the motion. He said he would make his ruling on the motion soon after that.
Several people showed up at the hearing in support of the defendant and his parents, Greg and Norma White, of Joplin. The boy's mother has stated publicly that she fears the Jasper County prosecutor’s office is attempting to make an example of her son by prosecuting him as an adult. She maintains that he was the victim of bullying by other students at the school and has said that she does not believe he tried to shoot anyone.
James Egan, one of three public defenders representing the boy, came prepared to call several expert witnesses in an effort to show how a certification hearing held in December was not a proper hearing.
The prosecutor’s office registered objections to revisiting certification issues at the circuit court level. Assistant Prosecutor John Nicholas argued that, lacking any showing of legal defect in the conducting of the hearing in December, the court has no cause to remand the case to juvenile court. He said if the judge were to do that, the defense would wind up calling the same witnesses to testify on the same issues that were considered in December.
"I mean: They want three bites at the apple," Nicholas told the judge.
The judge allowed Egan to call one witness when the hearing first began at 8:30 a.m., prior to the remainder of the morning’s court docket. But when the hearing resumed in the afternoon, the judge said it would be necessary to hear if there were any legal reason to remand the case before any other witnesses were called.
The witness called in the morning was Vince Hillyer, president of the Boys and Girls Town of Missouri. Hillyer told the court that White had been referred to them within the past year for possible admission to Boys Town and had been accepted there. He said he met with the boy in jail for 20 to 30 minutes earlier this year and found him to be "a typical kid," not beyond "reproach" and not a child who didn't have feelings.
Hillyer said Boys and Girls Town of Missouri has had a contract with the Missouri Division of Youth Services for the past three years as a placement option for the state's troubled youth. He said they have 20 to 30 state placements at any given time and can keep a boy or girl ordered there by the courts up to the age of 21.
Hillyer said Boys Town recently dealt with a teen from St. Louis in the exact same situation as the White boy, and he progressed to where he pursued college studies.
"So I just hope to have that same opportunity with Thomas," Hillyer told the court.
The judge asked Hillyer that if White were to be convicted as an adult, would Boys Town be a sentencing option under the state's dual jurisdiction program for juveniles certified as adults. Hillyer acknowledged that Boys Town would take any defendant ordered there by a court, adult or juvenile.
Egan argued in the afternoon that White had received ineffective assistance of counsel and been denied due process at the hearing in December. His attorney at the time, Chuck Lonardo, failed to call witnesses, like Hillyer or anyone from DYS, to show the judge at the hearing the full range of options available through the juvenile court system and to dispute the local juvenile officer's contention that juvenile placements with the state often wind up back in the community in less than a year, Egan argued.
Circuit Judge William Crawford certified White to stand trial as an adult in December primarily out of concern with the threat his alleged actions posed to the community.
"Nothing you heard today suggests that Judge Crawford's ruling was improper or void on its face," Nicholas told the judge.
He said the right to due process under the law does not guarantee a defendant that particular evidence will be presented but simply affords the opportunity to offer evidence, Nicholas said. He said it also is not proper for the defense to be raising constitutional arguments at this stage in a criminal prosecution.
"He does not have post-conviction relief until there has been a conviction," Nicholas said of the defendant.
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