Michael Hernandez was a promising young student in Florida until he decided he wanted to become a serial killer and would start with a classmate. According to court documents Michael Hernandez would lead the student to a school washroom where he proceeded to stab him to death. This teen killer would soon be arrested and his story fell apart quickly. Hernandez would be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole
Michael Hernandez 2021 Information
| DC Number: | M65386 |
|---|---|
| Name: | HERNANDEZ, MICHAEL |
| Race: | WHITE |
| Sex: | MALE |
| Birth Date: | 02/02/1990 |
| Initial Receipt Date: | 11/13/2008 |
| Current Facility: | COLUMBIA C.I. |
| Current Custody: | CLOSE |
| Current Release Date: | SENTENCED TO LIFE |
Michael Hernandez Other News
Michael Hernandez, the teen who aspired to become a killer before savagely stabbing a classmate to death at Southwood Middle School, will remain in prison for life.
A Miami appeals court on Wednesday upheld his second life sentence for the 2004 murder of 14-year-old Jaime Gough inside the middle school, a crime that stunned South Florida.
Michael Hernandez was also 14 when he slit Jaime’s throat inside a bathroom at the Palmetto Bay school campus. He has been in custody since the crime.
Originally sentenced to life after his trial in 2008, Hernandez was granted a new sentencing after the U.S. Supreme Court in 2012 banned automatic life terms without the possibility of parole for minors convicted of murder.
Michael Hernandez Other News
The 3rd District Court of Appeals has upheld the life prison sentence imposed a second time on a Florida man convicted of killing his middle school classmate when both were just 14 years old.
The court ruled Wednesday a Miami judge was correct in sentencing Michael Hernandez to life behind bars for the February 2004 stabbing death of Jaime Gough at Southwood Middle School. Hernandez got a second sentencing hearing in 2016 because of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that juveniles could not get mandatory life sentences.
Testimony showed that the now 28-year-old Hernandez remained obsessed with violent imagery and music that glorified death and murder. Prosecutors say Hernandez wanted to become a serial killer and had a list of victims.
His sentence will be reviewed after 25 years.
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Michael Hernandez More News
On February 3, 2004, Michael Hernandez was an eighth grade student in a gifted program at Southwood Middle School. That morning, a fellow student walked into a bathroom on the second floor of the school and saw Hernandez washing his hands. The student also saw in the reflection of a mirror another student collapsed in a toilet stall with blood on the floor. The student asked Hernandez if he had seen the body and Hernandez replied, “Yes, we should tell somebody.” Hernandez then left the bathroom and went to class. The other student hurriedly notified school officials.
The resulting investigation revealed that the student in the stall, J.G., had died. His throat had been cut and he had been stabbed in the neck and face. J.G. was a fourteen-year-old male in the eighth grade who was a friend of Hernandez. Police investigators were called to the scene and quickly discovered a bloody windbreaker and a latex glove in Hernandez’s book bag. In the early evening, Hernandez waived his Miranda2 rights and confessed to J.G.’s murder.
According to his videotaped confession, and the evidence admitted at the trial, Hernandez planned for over a week to murder both J.G. and another male student, A.M., who was thirteen years old.
Regarding the murder of J.G. on February 3, 2004, Hernandez first convinced J.G. to join him in the bathroom. Hernandez normally did not wear a hat or jacket. Once inside the bathroom that morning, however, he donned a hat, jacket, and latex gloves. Hernandez later explained that the hat was intended to keep hair follicles from falling on the crime scene; the jacket, which could easily be removed and hidden, was intended to keep blood off his shirt; and the gloves were intended to prevent palm prints and fingerprints. He coaxed J.G. into the handicapped stall. He locked the stall door. He turned J.G., so that he was facing away from him. He drew a gravity knife with a four-inch serrated blade from his right front pocket. As J.G. began to protest, Hernandez placed his left hand over J.G.’s mouth. At some point, J.G. pushed the edge of the knife away with his right hand, opening wounds in the pads of his index and middle fingers. Hernandez made several cuts across J.G.’s throat from left to right, finally making an incision four to five inches long that opened J.G.’s windpipe and severed both jugular veins. To determine if J.G. was alive, Hernandez poked the knife into his face and scalp. When he finally checked J.G.’s eyes, they were motionless. He flushed one pair of latex gloves down the toilet and put on another pair. He washed blood off his hands, jacket, and face.
Hernandez also confessed that he tried to kill A.M. the day before. Hernandez explained that, on February 2, 2004, he had lured A.M. into the same second-floor bathroom, but the thirteen-year-old balked at entering the stall. Regarding his plan, Hernandez said:
DETECTIVE: And what were your intentions yesterday?
HERNANDEZ: My intentions yesterday were to kill [A.M.] the same way I killed [J.G.] today, except for the fact that I was going to stab him in the back, and stab here. And that would have been it.
According to Dr. Steven Hoge, the defense’s psychiatrist, Hernandez decided to kill J.G. and A.M. because they knew he intended to kill others when he turned eighteen.
Shortly after confessing, Hernandez was indicted for first-degree murder and attempted first-degree murder. The defense raised the issue of whether Hernandez was competent to stand trial.3 At the first competency hearing, held in November 2004, the court-appointed experts, Dr. Vanessa Archer, a psychologist, and Dr. Jon Shaw, a psychiatrist, testified that Hernandez did not suffer from paranoid schizophrenia or any mental illness that impacted his competency. After reviewing the relevant factors, they concluded he was competent to stand trial. The defense’s expert, Dr. Barry Rosenfeld, a psychologist, testified that Hernandez’s symptoms strongly indicated that he was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia, which impaired his ability to meet some of the competency criteria. But Dr. Rosenfeld did not render an ultimate opinion on Hernandez’s competency. After hearing the testimony, the trial court entered an order finding that, although Hernandez suffered from mental illness, he was competent to stand trial.
As trial approached, the defense moved for an updated review of Hernandez’s competency. The court appointed Dr. Ralph Richardson, a psychologist, and again appointed Dr. Archer to conduct updated evaluations. In September 2008, a second competency hearing was held. At the hearing, the court took judicial notice of Dr. Rosenfeld’s prior testimony. It also heard from Dr. Richardson, who acknowledged that Hernandez had an obsessive compulsive disorder, but who testified that Hernandez was competent to stand trial. Dr. Archer testified that her second evaluation indicated that Hernandez suffered from a severe obsessive compulsive disorder, chronic depression, and a dysthymic disorder. Nevertheless, Michael Hernandez remained, in her opinion, competent to stand trial. At the conclusion of the hearing, based upon the testimony of the experts and his own observations, the trial court deemed Hernandez competent.
Although the indictment was originally filed in the Eleventh Judicial Circuit in Miami–Dade County, the case was transferred to the Ninth Judicial Circuit in Orange County, due to pretrial publicity. At the trial, after the conclusion of the State’s case-in-chief, defense counsel moved for a judgment of acquittal on the attempted first-degree murder charge, arguing that there was no overt act done toward the commission of the crime. The motion was denied. Michael Hernandez then presented evidence which focused on his defense that he was legally insane at the time of the crimes. The jury rejected Hernandez’s insanity defense and returned a guilty verdict on both counts. Venue was then transferred back to the Eleventh Judicial Circuit, where Hernandez was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole for first-degree murder and to a consecutive term of thirty years for attempted first-degree murder
https://caselaw.findlaw.com/fl-district-court-of-appeal/1626010.html
Michael Hernandez Death
The teenage killer who lured a friend into a bathroom stall at their suburban Miami middle school 17 years ago and cut his throat has died in prison.
Florida Department of Corrections online records show Michael Hernandez, 31, died Thursday. He had been incarcerated at Columbia Correctional Institute, about 50 miles west of Jacksonville. No cause of death was released, but WFOR-TV said Hernandez was seen on video collapsing, and no foul play is suspected.
Hernandez was serving a life sentence for the February 2004 murder of Jaime Gough when they were both 14-year-old students at Southwood Middle School in Palmetto Bay, just outside Miami.
Hernandez had lured Jaime into a handicapped stall before school with a promise to show him something. He then pulled out a knife, stabbed him more than 40 times and slit his throat. He then hid the knife in a secret compartment in his backpack and went to class.
After Jaime’s body was found, a teacher noticed blood on Hernandez and notified police. It was discovered that Hernandez had become fascinated with serial killers, studying them online. He had made a list of people he wanted to slay, including Jaime. He was found guilty in 2008 of first-degree murder after a jury rejected his insanity plea.
Jorge Gough, Jaime’s father, told the Miami Herald that he was “shocked” to learn of Hernandez’s death.
“I was not expecting this at all,” Gough said. He said he and his wife still talk about their son, who would now be 31, but “not in a sad way.” His son was a straight-A student who played the violin.
“We miss him, and the big question is: What would he be today?” he said.
Hernandez had planned to kill two friends, but Andre Martin got leery when Hernandez tried to lure him and Gough into the stall. The bell rang and the three went to class. The next day, Hernandez killed Gough.
Martin is now a Miami-Dade County police detective. He told the Herald he had mixed feelings about Hernandez’s death.
“My continued condolences for Jaime Gough’s parents, and the entire Gough family,” Martin said. “And the Hernandez family — they were not the ones who committed a crime and they did lose a family member.”
Michael Hernandez Cause Of Death
The District IV Medical Examiner’s Office in Jacksonville confirmed Monday that convicted killer Michael Hernandez died earlier this year from “cardiac dysrhythmia attributed to morbid obesity.”
Hernandez was 31 when he died on April 29 at the Columbia Correctional Institution near Jacksonville.
Hernandez had been serving a life sentence for the 2004 fatal stabbing of his classmate, Jaime Gough, at Southwood Middle School in Palmetto Bay. Both were just 14 years old at the time.
Police said Hernandez stabbed Gough more than 40 times and slit his throat after luring him into a bathroom.
Hernandez told police that he stashed the knife in a hidden compartment of his backpack and proceeded to class.
He was found guilty of first-degree murder in 2008 and sentenced to life behind bars.
After Hernandez’s death, the Goughs said the news of his passing was unexpected, but it did not bring them peace.
“That was very shocking for us,” Jaime’s father, Jorge Gough, said. “We were not expecting that at all. We’ve been hurt. We don’t want to see anyone die or hurt like that. Even though we went through what we went through, we were not happy to hear that Michael Hernandez was dead in jail.”
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