Saturday, September 13, 2008
Lawyer: Violent obsession behind Fla. boy's murder
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) -- The attorney for an teenager accused of killing a middle school student four years ago laid out an insanity defense Thursday, saying the boy was obsessed with serial killers, gangs and Internet violence.
Defense attorney Richard Rosenbaum conceded Michael Hernandez, now 18, slashed and killed Jaime Gough in a South Florida school bathroom stall. He said in the opening statements of Hernandez's trial it was because Gough, 14, learned Hernandez planned to become a serial killer.
"He wanted to kill everyone in the world," Rosenbaum said of his client. "He wanted to kill everyone in the world and on the space station."
Rosenbaum said he would present expert witnesses who agreed Hernandez was an intelligent, but mentally ill, student.
Hernandez faces up to life in prison if convicted. The trial was moved to Orlando from Miami because of heavy publicity.
Earlier Thursday, Miami-Dade Assistant State Attorney Carin Kahgan described Hernandez's actions as methodical, not insane. She said he lured Gough into a stall, pulled on latex gloves, slashed Gough's throat and stabbed him 40 times with a knife.
Kahgan said Hernandez then went calmly to a keyboarding class, leaving Gough's bloody body sprawled on a toilet. She said a fellow student and even the boy's own sister were future targets.
"I took the knife out and I proceeded to slit his throat," Hernandez calmly confessed to Miami-Dade detectives on videotape, Kahgan told the jury. "He turned around after I did that and asked me not to kill him ... So I told him, 'All right. I'm not going to cooperate."'
Rosenbaum said Hernandez was a reclusive 5-foot-2, 120-pound student with self-image problems and a fascination with violence. He said Hernandez had mentally deteriorated since 2003, cutting himself and hearing fictitious voices.
Hernandez and his lawyers have turned down plea deals offering 40 years in prison.
The trial is expected to last at least two weeks, much of it in testimony from psychological experts.
(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
