More teens in jail being charged as adults

When authorities charged 16-year-old Cody Lee Long with the fatal stabbing of his stepfather, it wasn’t the teen’s first brush with the law.

He had a history of domestic violence with his little brother that was handled through the juvenile court system, according to court testimony.

The alleged murder happened when Cody was 16, however, allowing for him to be charged as an adult. If convicted, he could spend the rest of his life in prison.

There were at least 10 other teens in Coffee, Dale, Geneva and Houston counties charged as adults this year because of a more than decade-old state law that set that precedent for any teen committing a capital offense or a felony while using a deadly weapon.

While juvenile criminal records are sealed, those records are often admissible for the prosecution during court hearings against teens.

Often in those hearings it is shown that a child charged as an adult was charged several times for other offenses as a juvenile.

According to Tammy Brannon, chief juvenile probation officer in Dale County, the juvenile court system serves as rehabilitation, not punishment.

“We are required to work with juveniles to keep them out of diversion centers and exhaust all interventions before resorting to incarceration,” she said in an e-mail.

“Many times these juveniles have been through multiple interventions through the juvenile court over a period of time, and then there are other times when a juvenile has not been that extensively involved in juvenile court and will commit a crime that can become an adult charge.”

Brannon said children as young as 12 can be entered into juvenile court services and remain in the system until age 18.

Some minor charges they could face stem from domestic-related issues like running away, harassment and violence, or third-degree burglary and criminal mischief.

Some more severe charges that can fall under the juvenile court system if committed by a teen are first-degree rape, criminal mischief, theft of property, possession of marijuana and sexual abuse, according to Brannon.

Felony discipline in the juvenile court system could involve serving time in the Southeast Alabama Juvenile Diversion Center.

Steps taken before the diversion center include programs called Juvenile Redirection and Juvenile Conference Committee, according to Brannon.

No statistics were provided to show the effectiveness of any of the programs, but Brannon said a community service aspect of each program often teaches the teens valuable lessons.

Group homes that allow the child to stay in an environment away from family are an option, while family intervention programs that target help for the entire family — like the Ozark-Dale County Family Services Center — can also help.

Cheryl Leatherwood, a special programs manager for the Administrative Office of Courts, said hopes are that a recently-funded juvenile drug court in Dale County can attack the basis of a problem that causes teens to commit other crimes.

Law enforcement officials have said drug use is often the premise for violent crime.

“Our juvenile probation officers carry a heavy case load that prohibits them from giving each child and family the individual attention they need to begin to make changes in their lives,” Leatherwood said.

“This program and these funds will assist them by bringing in other professionals who will assist with drug and alcohol addiction and mental health issues that often lead to substance abuse.”

But once a teen is charged as an adult, the juvenile intervention programs are often not available to them at that point.

The teen is placed in the county jail until he or she either bonds out or until the case is disposed.

And in many cases, teens miss time in school when facing adult charges. Travis Marshall, a 16-year-old who was charged along with several others in an Ozark home invasion, was denied a bond reduction before school started. It appeared one reason for the bond reduction request was so he could get out and attend school.

Authorities said it was Marshall’s first offense.

Dale County Sheriff Wally Olson said it was not totally uncommon to see so many teenagers in the jail at one time, but that it was somewhat unusual.
Teenagers taken to the county’s jail often reconsider the decisions they have made that landed them there, he said. They are secluded in the jail for at least a day before they enter the general jail population.

“It varies. “You have some who get their eyes opened pretty quick,” he said. “Then you have some who had some pretty extensive juvenile records and some rough ones who come through. A lot of our teenagers pretty much stay to themselves.”

Recent Wiregrass cases involving juveniles charged with adult crimes:

Disposed:

Ian Seth Hubbard, who was 16 when Houston County Sheriff’s deputies arrested him, was sentenced in July to serve more than 20 years in prison for the first-degree sodomy of a 4-year-old girl. Hubbard, of Pansey, faced 10 to 99 years or life in prison for the class A felony.

Pending:

January:
Randall Lamar Thomas, 16, and his cousin, Mandrell Rashawn Baxter, 17, were charged with first-degree robbery in the theft of some loose change and beer from a man in the parking lot of a Dothan convenience store.

March:
Amir Tariq Davis, 17, was charged with two counts of first-degree robbery after Dothan police arrested him. He faces 10 to 99 years or life in prison for the class A felony first-degree robbery.

May:
Travis Tyrec Marshall, 16, was charged with two counts of first-degree robbery and one count of kidnapping in Dale County after authorities say he was involved in an Ozark home invasion.

June:
Alex Rushing was indicted for felony manslaughter in connection to a fatal crash in December 2007 that left 39-year-old Dawn Lewis dead. Rushing, who was 16 at the time of the crash, faces two to 20 years in prison if convicted of the class B felony of manslaughter. He has applied for youthful offender status.

Dexter Gardell Currington Jr., 17, was charged with first-degree burglary and first-degree robbery in Dale County after allegedly breaking into an Ozark woman’s residence and threatening her with a gun.

Cody Lee Long, 16, was charged with murder in Dale County after he allegedly fatally stabbed his stepfather in Ozark after a domestic altercation.
Jordan Devon Myhand, 16, and Michael Shoneta Jones, 16, were both charged with felony first-degree robbery of a man at gunpoint in the parking lot of the Grenada apartments off South Oates Street in Dothan.

August:
Keyon Ward, 17, of Dothan, was charged with first-degree robbery of a Dothan convenience store involving a sawed-off shotgun.

September:
Donta Tillis, 18, of Elba, Kydron Tillis, 18, of Ozark, and Devonta Tillis, 17, of Elba, and two 15-year-olds all charged with attempted murder in Elba as part of a shooting investigation at a motel. Authorities say the 15-year-olds were transported to the Southeast Alabama Juvenile Diversion Center.