Quick Take
Judge Denine Guy on Thursday denied a request for a change of venue for a jury trial that will decide whether to release Adrian “AJ” Gonzalez, who raped and murdered 8-year-old Madyson “Maddy” Middleton nine years ago, when he is set to age out of the California juvenile justice system on his 25th birthday in October.
The jury trial that will decide whether to release Adrian “AJ” Gonzalez will remain in Santa Cruz County after a judge denied his attorney’s request Thursday for a change of venue.
Gonzalez raped and murdered 8-year-old Madyson “Maddy” Middleton nine years ago when he was 15. He was convicted in 2021 as a juvenile under the eyes of the law. It came after a yearslong battle over a California statute prohibiting offenders under 16 from being tried as adults. Middleton was his neighbor in Santa Cruz’s Tannery Arts Center.
On Thursday, Judge Denine Guy denied Santa Cruz County Chief Deputy Public Defender Athena Reis’ request to move the case out of the area, saying she failed to show that Gonzalez wouldn’t have a fair and impartial trial.
Reis argued that because of the seriousness of the crime, how it captured the attention and outrage of the community and “extensive media coverage,” it wouldn’t be possible to have a fair jury trial in Santa Cruz County.
Guy argued that Reis didn’t prove that there had been extensive media coverage, and said that there were, in fact, years when there wasn’t coverage, or very little, due to delays in the case going to trial. Guy also argued that it’s been long enough since Middleton’s murder that potential jurors might not know about the case or recall its details.
Since the conviction of Gonzalez, now 24, in 2021, he’s been serving time in the juvenile justice system. Because Gonzalez was 15 at the time of the murder, and a recently implemented California state law (Senate Bill 1391) prohibited the prosecution of people under the age of 16 as adults, he was prosecuted as a juvenile. The law also required that he be released before his 25th birthday, later this year.
In May, Santa Cruz County Chief Deputy District Attorney Tara George challenged his release, saying he still posed a threat to public safety. On Aug. 6, Guy said George showed probable cause for a jury trial and ruled that the decision of his release would go to a jury trial.
During the jury trial, George will have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Gonzalez isn’t fit to be released.
If jurors agree, he would be held in state custody for an additional two years, after which he again would be slated for release unless prosecutors object again and were successful.
Jury selection for the trial regarding his release will start Monday.
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