VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. – The Volusia County state attorney announced charges Thursday against two juvenile runaways accused of opening fire on deputies with guns found inside a home they broke into.
The 14-year-old girl, who was shot by deputies after they say she pointed a shotgun at them, will face charges as an adult, according to State Attorney from the 7th Judicial Circuit R.J. Larizza, while the 12-year-old will face charges as a juvenile.
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Despite the two facing charges in different court systems, their charges are the same, Larizza said. Both face attempted first-degree murder of a law enforcement officer, burglary of a dwelling while armed with a firearm and felony criminal mischief.
He pointed out that the charge of attempted first-degree murder of a law enforcement officer would carry a mandatory life sentence for adults who are convicted; however, even in the case of the 14-year-old that is charged as an adult, the sentencing rules are different because of the Graham and Miller decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court.
“The United States Supreme Court in Graham v. Florida ruled that life without parole sentences for juveniles convicted of non-homicide crimes are cruel and unusual, and therefore unconstitutional, and required that convicted juveniles must have a meaningful opportunity for release. Miller v. Alabama followed, and the Court ruled that mandatory life without parole sentences for juveniles convicted of any crime violated the Eighth Amendment,” according to the Stetson Law Review.
“I do also want to add that while the 14-year-old has been charged as an adult, that the judge has the discretion, ultimately, to issue juvenile sanctions,” Larizza said.
According to body camera video and reports from the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office, the foster children ran away from a nearby children’s home before ransacking a home on Enterprise Osteen Road and discovering a cache of weapons. When deputies were out looking for the children and saw the home, they attempted to make contact, but the girl and boy opened fire on deputies with the recently found firearms, according to Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood.
The boy and girl repeatedly fired at deputies for about 30 minutes, according to sheriff’s officials, before deputies shot the 14-year-old girl in the chest and arm and the boy surrendered.
“We’re lucky that both of these individuals (the foster children) are alive, and we didn’t lose any law enforcement. I mean that’s the blessing there,” Larizza said.
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Chitwood issued a statement Thursday after the announcement about the charges.
“The first priority for me is that our deputies are alive. What happens next in the courtroom will be up to a judge and jury,” Chitwood said. “I have full confidence in R.J. Larizza and his team, and I support the difficult charging decisions they had to make in this case. These young defendants are alive today because of the training, compassion and incredible restraint displayed by our deputies, and I have faith that our State Attorney’s Office will make sure that their efforts were not in vain.”
The 14-year-old girl made her first appearance before a judge last week from a bed. Deputies said she is still receiving medical care at a juvenile detention facility. The judge ordered the girl to remain in custody.
Prior to her first appearance, the 14-year-old had been in the hospital since June 2 when investigators say she and a 12-year-old boy ran away from Florida United Methodist Children’s Home, prior to getting into a shootout with deputies.
“She will be moved to the Volusia County branch jail where she will be, that’s where she will be held, pending the outcome of these charges,” Larizza said.
During his first appearance, the 12-year-old boy was also ordered to remain in custody. The prosecutor said he will remain at the juvenile detention center.
Sheriff’s office records for both the girl and boy show an extensive history of mental illness. Both children have been hospitalized under the Baker Act, a Florida law that allows authorities to temporarily detain someone for emergency mental health services.
“Their background in general — not getting specific — is cause for concern and alarm and it’s disturbing, but we believe that, putting her charged as an adult doesn’t mean that she’s ultimately going to be sentenced as an adult,” Larizza said. “We’ll cross that bridge later because we have plenty of time to vet out both of these kids’ backgrounds and vet them not just on police reports with but experts who can evaluate them and give us expert opinions about really what we’re dealing with.”
Since the shooting, Chitwood has demanded action and criticized state agencies, including the Department of Juvenile Justice and the Department of Children and Families, both of which had encounters with the suspects at early ages.
“The Department of Juvenile Justice failing to do its job. DCF is failing to do its job and everybody is pointing the finger at one another,” Chitwood said two days after the shooting.
The state attorney also addressed Chitwood’s concerns during the news briefing.
“I’ve also talked to the Department of Children Families. In fact, they have created a committee and one of our own — Kristen DePaula our managing attorney for juvenile throughout the circuit — is on that committee to work with DCF regarding the housing of juveniles. of minors, and how we can look at this event, we can look at what happened, and try to come up with some solutions,” Larizza said. “Better practices on how to address the very difficult in the very challenging, challenging issues of where do you house kids that are in foster care, that are in delinquency status, or come from the dependency court or shelter petitions and how we can do a better job of that.”
He added, “I think we have folks in decision-making positions with DCF and the JJ (Juvenile Justice) that want to help figure out what a better practice would be.”
Despite the serious charges the children face, Larizza made clear that he wanted a fair outcome for them as they make their way through the court system.
“The bigger challenge — which is an opportunity — is how we treat the folks that have been charged, and what ultimately is the appropriate way to resolve them. And that’s going to take, looking at the law. the facts and also I think putting some compassion in there as well, but you got to balance public safety with the needs of these individuals.”