Ruling Halts Prosecution of 6-Year-Old

A 6-year-old Richmond boy with “cognitive disabilities” was ordered Friday to undergo intensive counseling rather than stand trial on charges of breaking into a neighbor’s home and beating a month-old infant nearly to death.

The ruling suspends criminal prosecution in a case that shocked and sickened the East Bay community--a kindergartner accused of pulling a baby from his bassinet and pummeling him with his fists and a stick. The baby now suffers severe brain damage.

Charges of attempted murder and burglary against the boy had been reduced to assault with intent to injure and trespassing. On Friday, following the advice of psychiatrists, Juvenile Court Referee Stephen Easton ruled that the boy was unable to understand criminal proceedings or assist in his own defense so he did not meet the legal standard of competency.

“His attention span, if you are lucky, is three to four minutes--or not even that,” Easton said after reviewing three psychiatric evaluations that diagnosed the kindergartner as having attention-deficit disorder and other problems.

Easton did not dismiss the charges, but suspended prosecution while the boy undergoes counseling.

Contra Costa County authorities immediately moved to commit the boy to a group home, where he is under the supervision of a staff psychiatrist and child counselors. His family did not contest leaving the boy in a group home where he has lived since leaving Juvenile Hall. His progress will be reviewed within six months.

“I’m glad he’s getting help that he’s needed and not locked up like a criminal,” said Lisa Toliver, the boy’s mother. She said she hopes her son “gets the help that he needs so he’ll be able to come home soon.”

Defense attorney John Burris vowed to continue pressing for dismissal of all charges. But Burris supported the prosecution’s push to have the boy committed to the group home, he said, “so he can receive the kind of counseling and intensive psychotherapy that he needs.”

The 6-year-old, legal authorities believe, is the youngest person ever charged in the United States with so serious a crime.

The criminal justice system generally assumes that anyone under 12 is not capable of understanding the consequences of his or her acts, and it is rare for anyone under that age to face criminal charges.

The boy was not in the courtroom Friday because Burris believed that it would not have been healthy for him to hear arguments about his mental fitness.

Two of three court-appointed psychiatrists concluded that the boy was not mentally competent to stand trial. All three diagnosed the boy with various cognitive disabilities, including attention-deficit disorder and an auditory disorder.

Prosecutor Harold Jewitt did not dispute the child’s mental problems, but contended that the boy’s taped confessions to police and psychiatrists were evidence that he understands right from wrong.

Reading from a recent interview with a psychiatrist, the boy was quoted in court as saying, “I’m in trouble. I did something wrong. I hurt a baby.”

Jewitt said the law gave him little choice other than pursuing criminal prosecution to keep the child under the court’s jurisdiction.

“We understand he is a 6-year-old,” Jewitt said. “But there is a public safety issue here.”

Police accused the boy of breaking into a neighbor’s home in Richmond on April 22 with a pair of 8-year-old playmates to steal a Big Wheel tricycle. During the break-in, police said, the 6-year-old kicked, punched and used a stick to beat Ignazio Bermudez Jr. while the playmates stood nearby.

The infant’s parents had briefly left Ignazio in the care of an 18-year-old stepsister, who was in the bathroom during the alleged attack.

Ignazio spent more than two weeks in intensive care at Children’s Hospital of Oakland, breathing with the help of a respirator. He was released in mid-May.

Physicians now believe that the infant will suffer lifelong effects of brain damage. He may never walk, they said, and he may have difficulty seeing because of the trauma to the left side and back of his brain.

“It is going to be a month-by-month situation,” said Dr. William Jenkins, the infant’s pediatrician.

“Things are going well except for one thing: His head is not growing as it should,” Jenkins said. “That is a big potential problem. It is indicative of the brain not growing well. If that happens, the child may not develop as he should.”