Prosecutors Declare There Will be a Retrial in Teen Murder Case

The first trial of an Oxnard middle school student who shot a classmate has ended with a hung jury and a mistrial. The incident is one of hot debate because the victim's sexual preference has left many people questioning whether or not it was a premeditated murder and hate crime.

The teen, 14 years old at the time of the killing, was first tried as a minor, but prosecutors in Ventura County are debating whether or not to retry him as an adult. The initial decision to try the individual as a minor and not an adult is believed to be the reason the conviction was so difficult to win.

If the teen truly committed the act as a hate crime and was lying in wait to kill the victim, then this is enough to automatically qualify for retrial as an adult. In this case, the accused could face an entire lifetime in prison if convicted.

Charges such as those mentioned above are serious, especially when they could result in prison time for the remainder of one's life. If you're only a teen it means the majority of your life would be spent in prison. That type of sentence is enough to scare anyone, let alone a young adult who has already been forced to endure the grueling aspect of one trial. In order to avoid this kind of scenario, it is critical to find an outstanding criminal defense attorney to support you in court.

The heavy burden of a criminal offense hanging over your head does not have be carried alone. At Okabe and Haushalter, our aggressive tactics have proven beneficial to criminal clients who seek a just outcome in their case. If you want edgy defense that will represent your situation in the most favorable light possible, contact a Los Angeles criminal lawyer from our firm. You may have gotten into this mess by yourself, but together we can work to try and get you out of it.