Juvenile Criminals

Two 17-year-old girls have been sentenced for torturing and butchering an elderly woman, less than three weeks after a pair of 10-year-olds were charged with murdering a toddler. Again, a troubled nation is asking, how could this happen? Edna Phillips, 70, was throttled with her dog's leash and stabbed or slashed 86 times. The mental images of the crime have shocked the nation just as the video pictures of little James Bulger being led to his death did last month.

Sara Kruzan was 16 when she lured her former pimp into a motel room, shot and killed him and took his money. The terrible crime was committed in Riverside County by a girl who had been sexually molested and physically abused since her earliest days, raised by an addicted mother, gang-raped at 13 and at the same age sent into the streets to make a living as a prostitute by the man she would eventually kill. But teenagers change. Today, at 32, Kruzan is a model prisoner in the honor dorm at Valley State Prison for Women in Chowchilla.

As increasing numbers of American cities step up enforcement of youth curfews, more than 90% of cities surveyed find the controversial laws a useful tool for police officers, with several California cities reporting dramatic decreases in juvenile crime, according to a national report released Monday. And all 72 surveyed cities that have daytime curfews--also known as anti-truancy laws--report more children in school and fewer under arrest.

The Supreme Court for the first time on Monday put a strict constitutional limit on prison terms, ruling it is cruel and unusual punishment to send a young criminal to prison for life with no chance for parole for a crime that does not involve murder. The ruling is the second in recent years to greatly expand the constitutional protections for juveniles. And once again, the justices in the majority said they agreed with international critics who say the United States is out of step when it comes to treatment for the young.

There are no handcuffs, no razor-wire fences, no uniforms, no cells. Missouri does things differently in its prisons for young people, and it shows -- in what you see and what you don't. Inmates, referred to as "kids," live in dorms that feature beanbag chairs, potted plants, stuffed animals and bunk beds with smiley-face comforters. Guards -- who are called "youth specialists" and must have college degrees -- go by their first names and don't hesitate to offer hugs.

The California Supreme Court gave prosecutors a victory Thursday, ruling that serious felonies committed by a juvenile, even when dealt with by a Juvenile Court, can count as prior strikes under the state's three-strikes law. Legal experts said the ruling settles the issue of what a judge may consider in deciding whether a convicted adult felon is subject to the 25-year-to-life sentence mandated by the three-strikes law for repeat felons.

The lawyer for a 14-year-old boy accused of robbing and raping boys at knifepoint near their Anaheim junior high school said Friday that her client should be treated like the "little boy" he is rather than an adult criminal. Jose Avina, who could face life in prison if convicted of rape and robbery, is believed to be the youngest person ever charged as an adult with rape in Orange County. "This case is a tragedy for all involved," said Deputy Public Defender Shelly Aronson.

It was such a grown-up crime, police say, with such a childlike motive. A 12-year-old boy with a .22-caliber revolver entered Jung (Sam) Woo's Monrovia bike shop on Thursday just after school let out, the time of day when youngsters usually flocked there to replace a spoke or patch a tire. According to authorities, the armed youngster was not interested in pillaging the cash drawer. When he fired a single shot into the head of the store's popular owner, police say, the boy wanted a new bicycle.

Like a lot of 17-year-olds, Robert Davis was a handful for his mother and stepfather. It's not that he did anything terribly wrong, but he could not do much right either. He argued with his parents, he skipped school, he ran off. This spring, he found himself in the state-run China Springs Youth Camp. There, in April, he heard the news. In San Quentin Prison, the television reporter intoned, a murderer named Robert Alton Harris was about to be executed.

About This Saturday Journal A year after the Columbine school massacre, Americans still wonder how and why such tragedies occur. Seeking answers, The Times examines the lives of the Rouses, whose son committed one of the first school shootings -- a 1995 attack in Lynnville, Tenn. * About This Story This story is drawn from interviews over the past 18 months and from court documents and other records. The interviews include 30 hours of discussions with Jamie Rouse over two weeks in prison.

The United States is the only nation in which someone can be locked up forever, with no chance for parole, for a crime committed in his or her youth. The Supreme Court is expected in coming days or weeks to rule on whether states may continue this costly, foolish and cruel practice of extinguishing a youth's hope and chances at redemption, even in cases in which no one died. California has 250 people in this position -- condemned to stay in prison until they die for crimes they committed at ages as young as 14; only Pennsylvania and Florida have more.

The Los Angeles County district attorney's office is debating whether to file criminal charges against three Calabasas youths arrested in connection with recent attacks on redheaded students at a middle school. Sheriff's investigators booked two 12-year-old boys on charges of battery on school property and a 13-year-old boy on charges of cyber-bullying: sending a threat via electronic communication. The case was presented to a juvenile-case prosecutor Monday. The attacks were apparently spurred by a Facebook site and inspired by an episode of the animated "South Park" television show titled "Ginger Kids."

Colton Harris-Moore has been a one-boy crime wave since he was 7 years old. He has broken into houses, stolen cars and burglarized markets, hardware stores and cafes for years on this rural, woodsy island north of Seattle. Since early in 2008, when he escaped from a juvenile holding facility, Harris-Moore, now 18, has been leading police on a fruitless chase through Washington, Canada and Idaho -- stealing two boats and crash-landing three planes (he taught himself to fly on his computer, authorities suspect)

Joe Sullivan was 13 years old when he and two older boys broke into a home, where they robbed and raped an elderly woman. After a one-day trial in 1989, Sullivan was sentenced to life in prison with no chance for parole. Terrance Graham was 16 when he and two others robbed a restaurant. When he was arrested again a year later for a home break-in, a Florida judge said he was incorrigible. In 2005, Graham received a life term with no parole. The two young convicts represent an American phenomenon, one the Supreme Court is set to reconsider in the fall term that opens Oct. 5. At issue is whether it is cruel and unusual punishment to imprison a minor until he or she dies when the crime does not involve murder.

A 13-year-old El Monte boy was charged Friday with two felonies for allegedly starting the Morris fire on Aug. 25 that burned more than 2,100 acres north of Azusa, prosecutors said. The youth, whose name was withheld by prosecutors because of his age, is accused of felony arson of a forest and recklessly causing a fire to a forest or structure. Jane Robison, a spokeswoman for the L.A. County district attorney's office, said the boy is not in custody and is scheduled to appear in Juvenile Court in Pomona on Nov. 17. Robison said investigators are not revealing yet how the fire was ignited, but the boy was among a group of people known to be in the area at the time the fire began.

Authorities used pepper spray to help end a racially charged fight among two dozen juvenile prisoners at Camp Kilpatrick in Malibu over the weekend, authorities said. The brawl began with name-calling between an African American and a Latino in the camp's dormitory about 6:30 p.m. Saturday, said L.A. County Chief Probation Officer Robert Taylor. The brawl lasted about an hour, and two staff members and several inmates suffered minor injuries. Twenty-three inmates were removed from the camp and housed at two other facilities, and one of the housing units sustained minor damage, Taylor said.

Convicted of a brutal murder, Lionel Tate seemed precisely the child that get-tough sentencing laws were designed to punish. Although he was just 12 years old when he beat a young playmate to death, Tate received life in prison without parole. But barely a week after the boy, now 14, was led in shackles from a courtroom, he has become a symbol for child advocates, state lawmakers and even prosecutors who say the laws are too tough and too inflexible.

Assume you're trying to land a job during a time when the economic pendulum is barely beginning to swing up. Assume further that you have little or no experience at any job of any kind. And, by the way, you have a recent criminal record. As far as much of the world of employment is concerned, you're persona non grata.

Nearly a year ago, Jocelyn Mull's teenage son was shot and killed by an alleged gang member in a Hollywood parking lot. Los Angeles police arrested a 17-year-old suspect soon after, but in what prosecutors called a "highly unusual" move, the judge released the suspect to home arrest. Ever since, Mull, 36, has waged a campaign to have the suspected gunman tried as an adult and held in jail.

Prosecutors have offered a plea deal to an 8-year-old boy charged with murder in the shooting deaths of his father and another man, court records show. Complete details of the offer weren't spelled out in a court filing posted Saturday on the Apache County Superior Court's website. But Apache County Atty.