Quick Take
The Santa Cruz County District Attorney’s office argued on Tuesday that Adrian Gonzalez, who raped and murdered his 8-year-old neighbor when he was 15, should continue to be held beyond his 25th birthday, when people convicted of serious crimes as children are supposed to age out of the juvenile justice system. After four days of testimony from mental health professionals and rehabilitation program workers, Santa Cruz Superior Court Judge Denine Guy will rule next Tuesday whether Gonzalez will be released or if a jury trial will determine whether he remains incarcerated.
A four-day probable cause hearing to decide whether Adrian “AJ” Gonzalez will be released from custody 9 years after he raped and murdered 8-year-old Madyson “Maddy” Middleton wrapped up in Santa Cruz County Superior Court on Tuesday, with Judge Denine Guy’s ruling scheduled for next Tuesday.
Gonzalez, 24, was 15 when he murdered Middleton, his neighbor in Santa Cruz’s Tannery Arts Center. He’s due to age out of the juvenile justice system on his 25th birthday later this year. Most of the hearing entailed mental health and psychiatric professionals testifying about their time working with Gonzalez, the types of therapy he has undergone and their evaluations of his progress and perceived recidivism risk. He was convicted in April 2021.
At the end of the hearing, Santa Cruz County Chief Deputy Public Defender Athena Reis, who is representing Gonzalez, said that despite the gruesome details of the crime, he has engaged with treatment and rehabilitation to the fullest extent possible. She added that at the time of the crime, Gonzalez was suffering from major depression, suicidal ideation, and was living with a developmental disability — autism — that he did not know how to process and understand. She said that “he is simply not the same person that he was nine years ago.”
“The question for the court is not that the underlying offenses were committed, the question is is he still a danger? And over the last nine years, Adrian has engaged in all available programming to the highest level,” she said.
Santa Cruz County Chief Deputy District Attorney Tara George countered by saying that although Gonzalez has done well in an institutional setting, being able to “check the boxes” does not mean he is safe to release. She added that no one knows why Gonzalez appeared to snap on that day in 2015, which is precisely why she believes he should not be released.
“It doesn’t mean that after nine years and four days, we should think that his work is done,” she said. “To just call the crime horrific and then discuss behavior in an institutional setting defeats the purpose of what we’re doing.”
The Santa Cruz courtroom heard from three final witnesses on Tuesday.
Emma Ewel, an associate marriage and family therapist at the San Francisco Forensic Institute (SFFI) — the organization that evaluated Gonzalez’s mental health assessments — said Gonzalez has completed 70 to 80% of his sex offender treatment program, and that “based on her clinical judgment” she has not seen major risk factors for recidivism. However, she added that Gonzalez is the only client of hers that has committed kidnapping, rape and murder.
Ewel confirmed SFFI clinical forensic psychologist Ashley Mowrey’s testimony from last week that necrophilia, pedophilia and sexual sadism were not addressed in Gonzalez’s treatment, nor were the other violent aspects of the crime. However, she said that if he had shown signs of these tendencies, the treatment plan would have been amended to address them.
Jason Bell, executive director of Project Rebound, a nonprofit organization that assists formerly incarcerated individuals with transitioning and acclimating to a college campus, said the organization has connected Gonzalez with an academic advisor. Bell said he’s seen a “newfound energy around learning and growing” from Gonzalez, who made it clear he wanted to earn a degree.
Bell added that Project Rebound has a relationship with San Francisco-based nonprofit Larkin Street Youth Services, an organization that provides education, employment and housing services to youth at risk of homelessness. Program manager Gabe Singer said that Gonzalez has an appointment with the organization in late August pending the outcome of the hearing.
Gonzalez was tried as a juvenile because of Senate Bill 1391, which prohibited the prosecution of people under the age of 16 as adults and required they be released before their 25th birthday.
The county district attorney’s office challenged Gonzalez’s release in May, prompting the hearing. George, as prosecutor, must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Gonzalez is not fit to be released this year.
If presiding Judge Guy sides with George, then she can push back Gonzalez’s release, which would force the case to go to a jury trial. If the jury reaches the same conclusion, Gonzalez would remain in custody for up to two more years, at which point another hearing of this nature could take place, should the district attorney’s office once again challenge his release.
Guy will give her ruling next Tuesday, Aug. 6, at 10 a.m.