Juror in Gonzalez trial urges reform of state bill that prevented him from being charged as adult, allows repeat chances for release

A juror in Adrian Gonzalez’s unsuccessful bid for release is strongly pushing to reform a state law that required the Santa Cruz man to be tried as a juvenile, meaning his case will continue to come back to court every two years until he is released. 

“My mind still is not wrapped around the fact that this man is going back to juvenile detention for another two years, and then we do this whole thing over again in perpetuity,” said Joan Hoyt, who served on the 12-person jury in Gonzalez’s trial. “I have a problem with that.”

Gonzalez, 25, who raped and murdered Santa Cruz 8-year-old Madyson Middleton when he was 15 years old, was the subject of a monthslong trial to determine whether he should be released from custody or remain incarcerated for another two years. Last week, a Santa Cruz County Superior Court jury ruled against his release.

When Gonzalez was arrested in 2015, prosecutors first wanted to try the teen as an adult, but were barred from doing so by Senate Bill 1391, a California law passed in 2018 that prohibits the prosecution of people under the age of 16 as adults.

The bill faced numerous challenges, stalling Gonzalez’s case. The California Supreme Court ultimately upheld the bill in early 2021, finally allowing the case to move forward.

Gonzalez pleaded guilty and was sentenced to serve time in juvenile hall. He was scheduled to be set free in October, when he turned 25 and aged out of the juvenile justice system, but the Santa Cruz County District Attorney’s Office challenged his release. That prompted a three-week hearing last summer to determine whether he is sufficiently rehabilitated or continues to pose a threat to the public. In August, Judge Denine Guy ruled that prosecutors had successfully shown that there was probable cause for a jury trial to determine whether Gonzalez should continue to be held in custody. She could have ordered his release. 

While the jury ruled earlier this month that Gonzalez should not be released, the fact that he was convicted as a juvenile under SB 1391 means that Gonzalez will be up for release again in 2026. If the Santa Cruz County Probation Department does not petition his release, he will be set free. If it does petition his release, like it did in 2024, a process similar to the most recent one will begin once again.

Hoyt told Lookout that since jurors were prohibited from researching facts about the case during the trial, it wasn’t until after the verdict, when the jurors discussed the history of SB 1391 and Proposition 57 with prosecutor Tara George and Santa Cruz County District Attorney Jeff Rosell, that her outrage hit. Rosell said after the verdict that the bill is “the worst piece of legislation that I’ve ever seen.”

Initially, Proposition 57, passed by voters in 2016, gave judges the power to determine whether a person under 16 could be tried as an adult — but SB 1391 removed those powers. Santa Cruz County Superior Court Judge John Salazar, who presided over Gonzalez’s original criminal case before his retirement, ruled in 2019 that the case belonged in adult proceedings until the California Supreme Court eventually upheld SB 1391. 

Hoyt, a Soquel resident and senior customer strategy manager at Mars Petcare, said she feels that SB 1391 is not only an overreach on the part of the state, but that the bill itself was not well-planned. She is now pushing lawmakers to carve out exceptions from the law that would allow juveniles like Gonzalez who commit serious violent crimes to be tried as adults.

“I don’t feel like this was thought through. I think at minimum, there need to be exceptions made,” she said. “This is one of the biggest crimes that has happened in our county, and I find it hard to believe that the authors of 1391 would find their bill appropriate in the case of Adrian Gonzalez.”

Hoyt said that the nearly nine weeks of trial were grueling, and the brutal details profoundly affected her. Listening to Gonzalez’s weeklong testimony and watching his reenactment of the crime was “extremely difficult to sit through,” as were the details of the autopsy. Gonzalez stabbed Middleton multiple times after raping her, and stuffed her body in a recycling bin.

However, Hoyt said she didn’t fully realize how deeply the case had affected her until she and the rest of the jurors reentered the courtroom to deliver their verdict.

“Seeing everybody in that packed courthouse, I just felt the weight of the world on me and was surprised at the level of emotions that came over me,” she said. “I realized I had compartmentalized a lot even though I felt so much throughout [the trial] — whether that’s outraged or sad or appalled — I definitely compartmentalized a lot of that and it’s been a real struggle post trial.”

She said that she is struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms, like an inability to sleep, as she readjusts to her typical routine after the trial, but on the other hand, the case has awakened a motivation to better understand local and state legislation.

“This wasn’t on my radar whatsoever, and I’m thinking what other things am I not paying attention to,” she said. Hoyt added that she has reached out to California Gov. Gavin Newsom and former Vice President and California Attorney General Kamala Harris to urge a change to the legislation.

“There should certainly be an exception for someone who’s three months away from their cutoff date who kidnapped, raped, tortured and murdered an 8-year-old,” she said. “I’m clearly not a professional lawmaker or lawyer, but clearly this should be an exception.”

John Laird, California state senator for District 17, which includes Santa Cruz County, told Lookout that his office vetted a possible reform to the law in the fall that aimed to ensure a situation like Gonzalez’s cases could not happen again, but that the various legislators, civil rights groups and law enforcement representatives involved in the formation of the law are currently unwilling to change it.

Reached late Thursday afternoon while in transit, Laird said he couldn’t immediately comment on the details of the vetted reform without referring directly to it.

“I think there needs to be a change, but there’s no path to successfully change the law right now,” he said, adding that those involved in the bill “are worried about reopening the whole issue.”

Laird also said legislators and committee staff also believe that issues with the bill created a “bad situation” with Gonzalez’s case, and that he intends to continue to discuss the issue within the Legislature in the hopes of finding a way to reform the bill.

“I ache for the Middleton family. It’s a gross injustice and we shouldn’t put any California family through this in the future,” he said.

Hoyt said she’s concerned about the emotional trauma and legal costs that will be involved in bringing Gonzalez back to court for release in another two years, unless there are changes to the law. 

“I think that the authors of this bill did not have ill intentions, but it’s flawed, and I think we need to realize that it’s flawed and make changes,” she said. “If we do this every two years, this is going to cost [the county] in the millions of dollars, and we’re going to subject another 17 jurors to the trauma that we’re all currently feeling.”

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