Judge Won’t Free Boy in Stabbing : Violence: Lawyer asks court to consider ‘fragility of the 13-year-old’ in seeking his release. Arraignment in case is delayed until Feb. 18.

A Ventura County judge on Friday refused to release a 13-year-old Simi Valley boy charged with fatally stabbing a Valley View Junior High School classmate.

As Phillip Hernandez made his first court appearance since his arrest Tuesday in the schoolyard slaying of Chad Patrick Hubbard, 14, Deputy Public Defender Donna Forry asked that he be released to the custody of his mother, Sandy Hernandez.

Forry asked Superior Court Judge Steven Z. Perren to consider the “fragility of the 13-year-old,” and noted that it was the first time Phillip Hernandez has been in trouble with the law.

But Perren said he would follow the recommendation of a probation officer and Deputy Dist. Atty. James D. Ellison, who said the Hernandez boy should remain in custody because of the serious nature of the murder charge.

As the lawyers debated, Phillip Hernandez, clad in blue Juvenile Hall garb, appeared calm and alert. He seemed to listen intently as he sat at the defense table, his face resting on his folded hands.

Perren granted Forry’s request to postpone the boy’s arraignment until Feb. 18, when he will enter a plea to the murder charge.

Sandy Hernandez sat quietly in the gallery of the courtroom, comforted by the boy’s uncle and another supporter. After the hearing, she declined to comment on her son’s criminal case.

Forry told the judge that Sandy Hernandez is unemployed. The boy’s father did not attend the hearing.

After the hearing, Forry said she disagreed with the judge’s decision not to release Phillip Hernandez into the mother’s custody. “Whether he is charged with a serious offense or not, he should be at home,” the attorney said.

Outside court, Deputy Dist. Atty. Ellison described the weapon used in the attack as a folding knife with a three-inch blade. Witnesses have described Phillip Hernandez as a graffiti “tagger,” but Ellison said he has no evidence to suggest that the boy is a gang member.

Friends of the victim have said the two boys had a running feud that escalated last week when Phillip Hernandez took Chad Hubbard’s baseball cap.

The killing brought an overflow crowd of about 350 people to a meeting Thursday at Sinaloa Junior High, where school officials and police officers described the stabbing as an isolated incident that was not gang-related.

Services for Chad Hubbard will be at 10 a.m. today at Simi Covenant Church, 4680 Alamo St. A graveside service will follow at Assumption Cemetery, 1380 Fitzgerald Road, Simi Valley.