Murder Charge Against Boy, 11, Is Thrown Out

A judge Friday threw out charges against an 11-year-old Anaheim boy accused of helping his mother kill his grandmother, despite a prosecutor’s argument that the youth was a clever assassin’s apprentice acting out of hatred.

After two days of testimony, Pasadena Juvenile Court Judge Sandy Kriegler dismissed the claim that the youth had aided his mother, Victoria Elizabeth Jacobs Madeira, in the Oct. 14 stabbing and shooting of Roma Jaul Jacobs at her La Canada Flintridge home.

The youth was believed to be the state’s youngest murder defendant since 1981. An 11-year-old was convicted of murdering another child that year by stabbing the victim in the eye with an ice pick, said Darrell Bray, chief of information systems for the California Youth Authority.

After Kriegler dismissed the charges, one of the youth’s uncles, who asked not to be named, clapped, grinned and shook the hands of William Turner, the boy’s attorney.

The 11-year-old, clad in a gray sweat suit and black sneakers, maintained the stony expression that he exhibited throughout much of the trial. His demeanor had changed radically just once--on Thursday, when prosecutors played a recording of a 911 call made by Jacobs, who pleaded for help as she lay bleeding to death.

Then he plugged his ears, became glassy-eyed and buried his head between his forearms as he heard his grandmother’s cries.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Thomas Krag called the judge’s decision “not unreasonable.” But, he added, “I don’t want the boy living next door to me.”

The boy will be turned over to Orange County social workers who will place him in a group home, Turner said. His mother, although imprisoned and facing a murder charge, will remain his legal guardian for now, unless she is convicted, he said.

Madeira, 43, has pleaded not guilty and is being held in the Sybil Brand Institution for Women. She faces a preliminary hearing Jan. 24 in Glendale Municipal Court. Krag and Turner said they were uncertain how the outcome of her son’s trial would affect her prosecution.

According to authorities, the crime unfolded this way:

Madeira and her son, both equipped with knives and handguns, took a taxi from Anaheim to Jacobs’ home. Madeira stabbed her mother on a patio, then followed her into the kitchen, where Jacobs managed to dial 911. Deputies heard the woman plead for help seconds before Madeira shot her to death.

Madeira and her son were arrested outside Jacobs’ home just minutes after that call, with Madeira wearing military fatigues and her son wearing women’s clothing, jewelry and makeup, authorities testified.

Jacobs was shot at least four times in the head, they said.

Family members said Madeira has been diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic who convinced her son that his grandmother wanted to separate them. Relatives have blamed the crime on her illness. Social workers testified that the youth disliked his grandmother and often refused to see her.

Investigators and forensic experts found no evidence showing that the boy had stabbed or shot Jacobs. A neighbor of Jacobs testified that he heard the boy shout, “Shut up! Shut up!” as the victim shouted for help.

Krag argued in court that it was that incident and others that showed the boy knew and understood what he and his mother were doing.

Krag said the youth helped plan the crime, voluntarily disguised himself, helped his mother transport weapons to her mother’s home and then shouted hatefully at his grandmother when she pleaded for help.

“This isn’t how you go to grandmother’s house for dinner,” said Krag, causing the youth to wince and squirm. “This was a gruesome, awful act that was committed. He knew this was wrong. He absolutely knew this was wrong.”

Turner, who described Madeira as mentally unstable, argued that the boy was following her instructions and did not know her actions were wrong. To convict, state law requires that a defendant under age 14 must know and understand the wrongfulness of a violent act, Turner said.

“In this minor’s mind, when he accompanied his mother, he was doing what he thought was right,” Turner told Kriegler. “If the mother said, ‘Let’s go to hell and come back,’ I dare say most kids would go with the mother.”

The dramatic conclusion of the trial followed two days of comparatively low-key testimony by 15 witnesses for the prosecution.

Among the testimony:

A taxi driver who drove the pair to La Canada Flintridge said he received a generous $25 tip from what he thought were two oddly dressed women.

A sheriff’s deputy said that the boy told him at the scene: “I didn’t shoot anybody. . . . She shot herself.”

The boy sat stone-faced and silent throughout that testimony. It was the replay Thursday of the roughly three-minute 911 call that broke his composure.

“Help me, help me, help me, please help me. . . . I’ve been stabbed. . . . I don’t want to die. . . . Oh my God. . . .”

As the tape replayed Jacobs crying out to sheriff’s deputies--then gunshots, then silence--Krag and several onlookers saw the youth’s fingers pressed firmly against his ears.