Quick Take
A psychologist testified that Adrian Gonzalez, who killed 8-year-old Madyson Middleton when he was 15, has a low risk of reoffending and shows signs of having been a troubled teen rather than a lifelong criminal. The trial over whether to release Gonzalez continues on Wednesday.
A forensic and clinical psychologist who examined Adrian Gonzalez in November testified Tuesday that he believes the teen killer has a relatively low risk of reoffending because he did not show a longstanding pattern of committing serious crimes and presented like a troubled adolescent who could move past his criminal behavior. He also believes Gonzalez’s biggest risk factors could improve with time and treatment.
The psychologist, Roger Karlsson, has worked as a Stanford University professor and at prison hospitals treating and evaluating sexual offenders. He interviewed Gonzalez in both 2017 and 2024, and reviewed his mental health and criminal records for a risk assessment report.
Karlsson said that Gonzalez did not show signs of someone who was poised to be a lifelong reoffender, as Gonzalez did not have a history of significant criminal behavior before committing rape and murder when he was a teenager. “No one ever has zero risk of reoffending, but it’s on the lower end,” he said.
Rather, Karlsson theorized that Gonzalez was painfully lonely without a strong family relationship or guidance. He said Gonzalez was depressed and suicidal in 2015 when he raped and murdered Santa Cruz 8-year-old Madyson Middleton, and wanted to try having sex before possibly taking his own life, “which could be a consequence of watching pornography.” Karlsson said Gonzalez told him in 2017 that he wanted to do something outrageous to push himself over the edge to suicide. However, he acknowledged that Gonzalez never actually tried to kill himself before or after committing the crime.
Gonzalez, 25, who was 15 when he committed the crime, is in the midst of a trial that will determine whether he should be released from custody or remain incarcerated for another two years.
Karlsson acknowledged the brutal nature of the crime but explained that alone would not categorize Gonzalez as a likely lifelong reoffender. “This is a very serious crime that Mr. Gonzalez committed, but he still doesn’t have criminal versatility, for example,” Karlsson said. “He hadn’t committed a number of crimes during a long period of time.”
Instead, Karlsson said he would categorize Gonzalez as an “adult limited offender,” or someone who commits crimes during adolescence, but tends to stop as their brain develops past adolescence.
Gonzalez’s attorney, Charlie Stevens, walked Karlsson through a host of risk factors for reoffending and asked Karlsson to tell the jury how they relate to Gonzalez. Those factors included antisocial personality patterns, activities and associates, substance use, family and marital problems, and school and work problems.
Karlsson said Gonzalez told him he had used drugs only once and did not enjoy the experience, and while he did not complete high school, he earned a GED diploma and is motivated to take college courses. Karlsson added that Gonzalez had stolen paint and skipped school a few times in the past, but that the behavior it didn’t appear to be a pattern.
Gonzalez acknowledged that his relationships with family members, particularly with his mother, were not very good, but told Karlsson he knew he needed to address that. Ultimately, Karlsson said the risk factors for reoffending that Gonzalez did exhibit were “dynamic,” behaviors that are able to be changed and improved.
When prosecutor and assistant district attorney Tara George cross-examined Karlsson, he admitted that out of around 1,000 evaluations he conducted of sex offenders, only a handful of those people had also committed a murder. He added that he had never evaluated a juvenile who had committed murder, rape and kidnapping. He also said that he did not view any video or audio of Gonzalez’s statements to police immediately following the crime.
George asked Karlsson if Gonzalez had ever lied to him. Gonzalez avoided topics, he said, but didn’t tell “big lies that really make a difference.”
Karlsson had diagnosed Gonzalez with autism during his evaluation. George noted that Gonzalez had reviewed the criteria in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders — an official diagnostic guide to mental health conditions — with Karlsson and outlined how his experiences matched various requirements for the diagnosis. She asked if a patient might push for a specific diagnosis that would be viewed as less serious in sexually violent predator treatment. Karlsson said he was skeptical and believed that Gonzalez truly met five or six of the criteria for autism, and said he believed it’s uncommon for a patient to strategize in that way.
George referred to Karlsson’s testimony from Monday, when he said that Gonzalez scored 17 on a psychopathy test. Anyone higher than 30 is classified as a psychopath. He said that it is possible for someone to score low on the test and still be a psychopath, but that would be an unusual situation — likely a white-collar criminal with no violent past.
Karlsson touched on some of his conversations with Gonzalez. The teen killer had told the psychologist that he was a kleptomaniac for a period of about 10 months, when he would steal paint. Karlsson said Gonzalez changed his reasoning for stealing from doing it just for thrills, to doing it to support his hobby because he couldn’t afford paint. Karlsson added that Gonzalez mentioned being bullied and bullying others in their initial interview in 2017, but he omitted that fact in 2024.
However, Karlsson didn’t classify that as a lie. “If I don’t ask him about it, I can hardly blame him for it,” he said.
George went into details about the crime, including the long period of time — 15 to 30 minutes — that Gonzalez choked Middleton prior to sexually assaulting her, and the fact that Gonzalez told police he watched pornography that included choking. Despite that, Karlsson said he didn’t think Gonzalez fulfilled the critera for a sexual sadism diagnosis — arousal by inflicting pain — nor a diagnosis of sexual paraphilia, recurring sexual interest in objects, situations or individuals considered atypical.
“You need at least a pattern for six months so that when you diagnose it, you can say that it seems like this person is doing it again and again or having fantasies consistent with it,” Karlsson said. “It’s simply not enough.”
George will continue her cross-examination on Wednesday morning.
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