February 2021 | Page 36 of 54

Jayden Sterzer Teen Killer Murders 12 Year Old Girl

Jayden Sterzer was fifteen years old when he raped and murdered a twelve year old girl in Utah. According to court documents Jayden Sterzer knocked on the twelve year old girls door and asked her to help him to find a lost cat. Jayden Sterzer would lead the girl to an abandoned field where he would sexually assaulted and then strangled her.

Jayden Sterzer was initially sentenced to spend time in a juvenile facility until he turned twenty one years old if his behavior was considered to be positive. However this teen killer would assault a correctional officer and his case would be returned to court where he would be sentenced as an adult to fifteen years to life

Jayden Sterzer 2023 Information

Offender Number: 245158
Offender Name: JAYDEN MATTHEW STERZER
DOB: Mon, 22 Nov 1999
Height: 5 Feet 7 Inches
Weight: 240
Sex: M
Location: UTAH STATE PRISON
Housing Facility: OLYMPUS
Parole Date: N/A
Aliases:
- JAYDEN MATTHEW STERZER
- JAYDEN MATHEW STERZER

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It was always known that Jayden Sterzer would one day go to the adult prison for raping and murdering his 12-year-old neighbor.

But that day came much sooner than initially expected.

A 3rd District judge on Monday sentenced Sterzer to spend a 15-year-to-life sentence at the Utah State Prison, a decision that came after authorities say Sterzer assaulted a staff member while he was in a juvenile detention center.

Sterzer, now 19, admitted last December that he killed Kailey Vijil in 2015, after he knocked on her door and asked her help to find a lost cat. The then-15-year-old boy brought Kailey to an overgrown pasture about a half-mile from her family’s West Valley City home, where he sexually assaulted then strangled her.

His admissions were part of a “blended plea,” where he admitted to charges in both juvenile and adult court.

Sterzer’s plea was intended to allow him to stay in the juvenile facility for three years to receive treatment until he turned 21 — unless the Youth Parole Authority decided they can no longer help him.

That happened after authorities filed charges against Sterzer for allegedly assaulting a detention center staffer in August. The transfer to adult prison came about a year earlier than expected for Sterzer, who turns 20 in a few days.

Third District Judge Paul Parker on Monday sentenced Sterzer to a 15-year-to-life sentence for murder, and a one-to-15-year term for sexual abuse of a child. The judge ordered the sentences to run concurrent to each other.

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Jayden Sterzer is currently incarcerated at the Utah State Prison

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Jayden Sterver must serve 15 years before he is eligible for parole

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A young man who was convicted as a teen of luring a 12-year-old girl out of her house, raping and killing her, was set free for four hours last week as prosecutors scrambled to secure a new arrest warrant to have him re-booked into jail.

While there are still questions about how such a mistake could have happened, one culprit seems to be an outdated system and a disconnected fax machine.

The breakdown that let the admitted killer out into the public is now prompting conversations about how to prevent something similar from happening in the future

On July 16, 2015, Jayden Sterzer, then 15, went to 12-year-old Kailey Vijil’s West Valley house and lured her away from her home by asking if she would help him find his lost cat. Kailey’s body was discovered by searchers about three hours later in a horse pasture near her home. She died from strangulation.

As part of a plea deal, Sterzer was convicted as an adult on charges of murder, a first-degree felony, and sexual abuse of a child, a second-degree felony. In juvenile court, he pleaded guilty to rape of a child.

He was then ordered to be held in secure care on the juvenile court charge until his 21st birthday, at which time he would go back before a judge to be formally sentenced on his adult convictions. When that day comes, he faces a sentence of 15 years to life in the Utah State Prison for Kailey’s murder.

But on Aug. 14, while at the at the Decker Lake Youth Center, Sterzer allegedly assaulted a staff member, when charging documents say “Sterzer swung at him, punched him, shoved him against a wall, put him in a headlock/chokehold and head-butted him.”

West Valley police were called to Decker Lake and informed of the situation. A decision was made to take Sterzer — now 19, 5 feet seven inches, and 240 pounds — to the Salt Lake County Jail.

According to court records, on Aug. 20, he was transferred from the youth detention facility to the Salt Lake County Jail.

But on Aug. 26, after no formal charges were filed, Sterzer was released to the custody of his mother.

Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill said Friday it was only after Sterzer was let out of jail that his office learned about what had happened. The new charge had never been screened with his office.

Gill said his office scrambled to write up a new $1 million arrest warrant on the assault charge to get Sterzer back into custody and make sure he could not get out.

Four hours later, Sterzer was rearrested on a charge of assault by a prisoner, a third-degree felony, and re-booked into jail.

Gill said he hasn’t had a lot of time to explore where the breakdown happened.

“For us, the urgency really became the release of a person we prosecuted for murder and the safety of the public,” he said.

But Gill said his understanding of Sterzer’s sentence was that Juvenile Justice Services was ordered to hold him until he was 21. If Decker Lake officials wanted to move him into the adult facility before that time, they should have done the paperwork and gone before a judge first to get an order, Gill said.

“The breakdown occurred when that person was transferred from juvy to county jail separate from that order,” he said. “He is still under a judicial order. You can’t circumvent that just because you don’t want him in your facility any more.”

But Juvenile Justice Director Brett Peterson said protocol was followed, and Decker Lake did the same thing it’s been doing for over 20 years.

Peterson said while he agrees in a general sense with Gill, in this case, Jayden Sterzer is accused of committing a new crime when he was 19.

“It’s a whole different, new criminal episode occurring in our facility. We’re not going to base our decision to call law enforcement on a plea agreement. We’re going to deal with that situation at hand,” he said.

According to Peterson, it’s not up to the staff at Decker Lake whether to transfer a person to jail. He said West Valley police were called and informed about what happened.

As Jayden Sterzer was being taken away, Peterson said the officers were told about Sterzer’s murder conviction.

But West Valley police spokeswoman Roxeanne Vainuku said the role of the officers in that scenario was to transfer the suspect to jail. It is not up to the transporting officers to give the jail a rundown of the criminal histories of every person they take there, she said.

Peterson said his office did send over Sterzer’s case history to jail administrators — by fax.

Salt Lake County Sheriff Rosie Rivera said it was only after Sterzer was released and rearrested, and questions were raised about what had happened, that her staff learned an outdated system was being used to notify the jail about juvenile offenders.

The fax machine that the information was sent to is no longer in service, Rivera said, and the system of faxing information over is one that was set up long before she became sheriff.

“We didn’t even know the fax machine number had been obsolete for a long time,” she said.

Because of that, jail administrators were unaware that Sterzer was still waiting to be sentenced for child murder and rape.

Furthermore, because Sterzer’s criminal history is in juvenile court and he has yet to be sentenced in the adult system, Rivera said there was no warrant history for jail staffers to look up.

“No one saw that document. We didn’t know his previous charges, so he was released on a failed to file,” Rivera said.

If jail administrators had seen that document, Rivera said they would have called West Valley police to let them know that Jayden Sterzer was about to be released so they would have an opportunity to file something to keep him in jail.

Now, because of the series of events that put Sterzer on the streets for four hours, “We have taken a look at our processes to make sure it doesn’t happen again for someone who should never be let out of jail,” she said.

Rivera said background information about an inmate will now be emailed or someone will be called directly. And if a violent or high profile person is about to be released, Rivera said the arresting agency will be given a courtesy call to give them a chance to file something to hold the inmate longer if needed.

The sheriff said Jayden Sterzer “should have never been let out.” Rivera doesn’t want a family like the Vijils to ever have to worry about something like that.

“We don’t want to cause Kailey Vijil’s family any kind of grief after what they’ve been through,” she said. “We don’t ever want this to happen again.”

A court hearing to review the status of Sterzer’s case and what direction the case should go next has been scheduled for Sept. 9

https://www.deseret.com/utah/2019/8/31/20842308/jayden-sterzer-release-utah-kailey-vijil

Michael Swanson Teen Killer Murders 2 Store Clerks

Michael Swanson was seventeen when he would shoot and kill two clerks during two robberies. According to court documents Michael Swanson who is from Minnesota would travel to Iowa to rob a store where he would shoot and kill the store clerk. He would travel to another Iowa county where he would kill another store clerk. Michael Swanson would be sentenced to life in prison without parole. Since being in prison this teen killer has been convicted of attempted murder dealing with a violent assault on another inmate.

Michael Swanson 2023 Information

Name	Michael Richard Swanson
Offender Number	6658252
Sex	M
Birth Date	05/11/1993
Location	Iowa Medical & Classification Center
Offense	MURDER 1ST DEGREE
TDD/SDD *	LIFE
Commitment Date	07/07/2011
Recall Date	03/04/2089
Mandatory Minimum (if applicable)	01/04/2089

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A man imprisoned for killing two North Iowa store clerks was in solitary confinement on Friday after attacking another inmate, officials say.

Michael Richard Swanson, 21, and fellow inmate Michael Ivester are charged with felony attempted murder.

Swanson, serving time for the 2010 shooting deaths of Vicky Bowman-Hall and Sheila Myers, slashed another inmate in the neck multiple times at the Iowa Medical and Classification Center in Coralville on Nov. 13, according to a criminal complaint and affidavit.

The victim needed stitches to close 15 lacerations, the complaint states. A corrections officer and another inmate allegedly pushed Swanson off the victim.

Prison officials say Ivester also was involved in the attack. Officials would not identify the victim.

Swanson and Ivester have been separated from the rest of the prison population. They are not allowed to interact with one another or other inmates, said Iowa Department of Corrections Assistant Director Fred Scaletta.

No staff members were injured. The incident did not result in a lock down at the classification center, Scaletta said.PauseCurrent Time0:00/Duration Time0:00Stream TypeLIVELoaded: 0%Progress: 0%0:00Fullscreen00:00Mute

Swanson was imprisoned for the shooting deaths of Bowman-Hall, 47, of Burt, and Myers, 61, of Humboldt, on Nov. 15, 2010.

Bowman-Hall was working at the Crossroads gas station in Algona. Myers was shot later that night at a Kum and Go in Humboldt.

A jury convicted Swanson of first-degree murder for Myers’ death. After the verdict, he pleaded guilty to first-degree murder for the death of Bowman-Hall.

Initially sentenced to life in prison, Swanson was one of 38 inmates convicted as juveniles whose life-time prison sentences were commuted by Gov. Terry Branstad.

Branstad made the move after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled juveniles could not be sentenced to life without parole.

Swanson, who was 17 at the time of the killings, will now be eligible for parole after serving 60 years in prison.

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Michael Swanson, who killed two convenience store workers in 2010 and was convicted in 2011, will serve an additional 25 years after pleading guilty to attempted murder

Swanson, 21, made the guilty plea Tuesday to slashing a fellow inmate with a knife at the Iowa Medical and Classification Center in Coralville.

A second inmate, Michael Ivester, 34, pleaded guilty to attempted murder in late October.

On Nov. 15, 2010, Swanson, then 17 years old, shot Sheila Myers at a Humboldt convenience store. Earlier in the evening, he shot Vicky Bowman-Hall at a convenience store in Algona.

Both women were survived by husbands and children.

Swanson was convicted of first-degree murder and first-degree robbery for killing Myers. He shot Myers in the face with a .40-caliber Beretta handgun and left the Kum & Go store with $31 and some cigarettes.

He received a life sentence for that murder.

Swanson pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and first-degree robbery for Bowman-Hall’s death.

He admitted during his plea hearing that he walked into the Crossroads convenience store on the night of her death armed and shot Bowman-Hall with the intention of killing her.

Swanson received a life sentence for that murder.

In 2013, Gov. Terry Branstad commuted the life sentences of 38 Iowa inmates convicted as juveniles, including Swanson, to terms of 60 years in prison before they could be eligible for parole.

That order came following a 2012 United States Supreme Court ruling that threw out automatic life sentences for juveniles.

A re-sentencing hearing for Swanson has been continued indefinitely due to the attempted murder case, according to Iowa Courts Online.

https://www.messengernews.net/news/local-news/2015/11/swanson-gets-25-years-for-slashing-inmate/

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Isaiah Sweet Teen Killer Murders Grandmother

Isaiah Sweet was seventeen years old when he murdered his grandparents with an automatic rifle. According to court documents Isaiah Sweet grandparents had called police over a dozen time in a month’s period in order to get help for the troubled youngster however the system fell through.

On Mother’s Day weekend the teen killer would open fire with an automatic rifle killing his grandparents. Isaiah claimed that his grandfather was abusive and that is what led to the murders. This teen killer was initially sentenced to life in prison without parole however in a landmark case the Iowa Supreme Court ruled it was unconstitutional to sentence a juvenile to life in prison and his sentence was reduced. Isaiah Sweet was up for parole just four years after arriving at prison however it was denied.

Isaiah Sweet 2023 Information

Name	Isaiah Richard Sweet
Offender Number	6859998
Sex	M
Birth Date	02/07/1995
Location	Iowa State Penitentiary
Offense	MURDER 1ST DEGREE
TDD/SDD *	LIFE
Commitment Date	03/12/2014
Recall Date	07/12/2020
Mandatory Minimum (if applicable)

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An Iowa man who pleaded guilty to murdering his grandparents as a teenager and won a landmark state Supreme Court case that prohibited life without parole for juveniles will remain behind bars.

Three Iowa Board of Parole members reviewed Isaiah R. Sweet’s file Thursday and found that he has made “a fairly good start” in his four years in prison by earning a career readiness certificate and completing some rehabilitative programming. But the board agreed with the Department of Corrections, which recommended Sweet not be released.

“I think more time would definitely be needed for him to make the kind of changes we would need to see before we would ever consider paroling someone,” said Board of Parole member Kathleen Kooiker.

Sweet, now 23, was 17 in 2012 when he murdered his custodial grandparents, Richard and Janet Sweet, with an assault rifle in their Manchester home. He told police that his grandfather was verbally abusive and “made his life a living hell.”

Sweet pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree murder in 2013 and was sentenced the following year to life without parole.

But the Iowa Supreme Court in 2016 ruled that juveniles like Sweet who are convicted of murder cannot be given life sentences with no chance of parole, calling it a cruel and unusual punishment given a growing consensus among neuroscientists that teenagers’ brains have not fully developed, making them more likely to be influenced by peer pressure or impulses.

Sweet was resentenced later that year to life in prison with the possibility of parole. He is being held at the Iowa State Penitentiary in Fort Madison.

Thursday’s review was the first time the parole board has considered Sweet’s case. It lasted seven minutes and did not involve an interview with Sweet. His case will be reviewed on an annual basis going forward.

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Dominic Sylvester Teen Killer Murders Grandmother

Dominic Sylvester was sixteen years old when he murdered his Grandmother. According to court documents Dominic Sylvester would call 911 to report that his Grandmother was unconscious. Dominic Sylvester would later admit to police he struck the elderly woman with a stick. Initially the teen killer would plead not guilty however he would later change his plea to guilty. Dominic Sylvester would be sentenced to twenty seven years in prison

Dominic Sylvester 2023 Information

Status:	Incarcerated
MDOC Number:	153600
Last Name, First Name, Middle Initial:	Sylvester, Dominic O’Ryan
Alias or Aliases:	Dominic D Sylvester
Location(s) and location phone number(s):	Facility – Maine State Prison
Earliest Custody Release Date:	7/12/2041
Date of Birth:	3/24/2001
Age (Years):	19
Weight (Pounds):	200
Height:	5 Feet 11 Inches
Eye Color:	Hazel
Hair Color:	Brown
Race/Ethnicity:	White
Gender:	M

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A Maine teenager pleaded guilty Tuesday to killing his grandmother and was sentenced as an adult to 27 years in prison.

Dominic Sylvester was 16 when he dialed 911 to report his grandmother and guardian was unconscious on Feb. 26, 2018, in the Bowdoinham home they shared. He later told police that he’d hit Beulah “Marie” Sylvester on the head with a stick.

Dominic Sylvester originally pleaded not guilty to murder last year after a judge ruled he would be tried as an adult and a grand jury returned an indictment.

He changed his plea to guilty on Tuesday.

Dominic Sylvester, now 18, bent over his knees as he listened to the emotional statements of two relatives, including his birth mother, Tiffany Sylvester, who wept after testifying about her loss, the Portland Press Herald reported.

“Nobody wanted to help her. Not our family, not DHHS, not the sheriff’s department, when they all knew what was going on,” Tiffany Sylvester said, referring to previous incidents in which her mother had been hurt.

The victim suffered numerous cracked ribs, bruises, cuts, scrapes and a head injury, according to law enforcement officials. She’d previously suffered a broken arm and broken wrist at the hands of the defendant, prosecutors said.

The defense contended Sylvester was a victim of neglect, and asked the judge to consider reports that he’d been a victim of physical abuse, as well.

But prosecutors described Sylvester as the aggressor and said he would represent a danger to the public if released at age 21, the maximum amount of time he would’ve faced as a juvenile.

A murder conviction as an adult carries a 25-year minimum sentence with a maximum potential term of life in prison.

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Forensic psychologists for the prosecution and defense offered differing testimony on Thursday about whether a Bowdoinham teen accused of killing his grandmother in 2018 should remain in the juvenile justice system or be tried as an adult for her murder.

Dominic Sylvester, now 18, is charged with depraved indifference murder in the Feb. 26, 2018, death of Beulah “Marie” Sylvester, 55, his maternal grandmother, guardian and adoptive mother since the Maine Department of Health and Human Services placed him with her when he was 10 days old

Assistant Attorney General Meg Elam indicated the nature of Buelah Sylvester’s death for the first time Thursday while cross-examining a witness, explaining, “She was struck repeatedly by a stick. Her head was cracked open, she had cracked ribs, bruises, and cuts and scrapes on her legs and her torso.”

A hearing to determine whether Sylvester will be tried as a juvenile or an adult began Thursday in West Bath District Court. The hearing could last as long as eight days.

Sylvester was 16 years old at the time of his adoptive mother’s death. According to court documents, at 8:50 a.m. Feb. 26, 2018, he called 911 seeking medical assistance for his grandmother. He initially told the 911 operator that he had found her unconscious and bleeding after he took a shower.

Sylvester allegedly admitted to a detective that “he had struck the victim in the head with a stick.” The detectives ended the interviews after Sylvester allegedly “made a suicidal remark,” at which point Sylvester was admitted to the hospital.

He was hospitalized for two days, then arrested.

At his arraignment in March 2018, Sylvester’s attorney, Thomas Berry, entered a “denial” on Sylvester’s behalf, which in a juvenile case is the equivalent of a not guilty plea.

Testifying for the defense, Dr. Diane Tennies said Thursday that Sylvester suffered from severe abuse by multiple adults, including his grandmother, and had lived in “an incredibly chaotic, disruptive environment” from which he finally felt he had to save himself.

Tennies said she met with Sylvester twice in the fall of 2018 and considered some 4,000 pages of records from law enforcement, treatment providers and the Department of Health and Human Services, ranging from when the defendant was 8 years old to the time of the incident.

In response to questions by defense co-counsel Meegan Burbank, Tennies said Sylvester was abused by multiple adults, had “significant boundary issues” with his grandmother, and for some time lived with her and her longtime boyfriend, whom Tennies identified as a convicted sex offender with a history of child pornography offenses.

Tennies said reports by previous clinicians indicate that the teen often slept in the same bed as his grandmother and her boyfriend, two of three adults who allegedly perpetrated the abuse.

She said Sylvester had been prescribed medications for depression, psychosis and attention deficit disorder, but that frequently the medications were not consistently available.

“At one point, he attempted to hang himself,” she said. “There was no attention paid to that … but at times he would do something minor, and he would be slapped or punched.”

She testified that at one point in 2013, clinicians at an area emergency room recommended that Dominic Sylvester receive more intense treatment, but that his grandmother would not allow it because she would miss him or wouldn’t be able to visit him in the hospital.

Tennies further testified that the Feb. 26, 2018, incident — apparently triggered by a “dispute about heat” — actually resulted from “an accumulation of events over multiple — at least 10 — years, and at that moment, for whatever reason, Dominic felt he had to assert himself.”

Tennies told the defense that she found no evidence of psychosis in Sylvester, and referred to a letter written while he was in custody in which he wrote, “I did not mean to kill my Nana … I was putting wood in the woodstove and I threw a piece at her and she died,” saying the letter seemed to represent that Sylvester could “engage appropriately” with peers.

Elam then questioned Tennies about a 12-page Sagadahoc County Sheriff’s Office report documenting an incident in which Dominic Sylvester was reportedly caught sexually assaulting a young child and asked her about each of “at least” 13 incidents in which the sheriff’s office responded to the Sylvester’s home for incidents related to his behavior.

She asked Tennies if she had reviewed reports of threats and assault by Dominic Sylvester; or reports from the Mt. Ararat school system that he had assaulted and threatened teachers, assaulted Beulah Sylvester, and that on one occasion, sheriff’s deputies had to wrestle a BB gun away from him after he had “destroyed the home and hit Beulah with a BB.”

Still, Tennies said Sylvester has “thrived” since being incarcerated at Long Creek Youth Development Center, away from the chaos of the Bowdoinham trailer where he grew up. She said providers found “amazing” and “significant” changes in his behavior and adjustment, and said the juvenile detention center would offer the best environment for him to continue to do so.

But Dr. Debra Braeder, Maine’s chief forensic psychiatrist who conducted Sylvester’s competence and criminal responsibility evaluations, said he does suffer from a genuine pathology, or mental illness, although she acknowledged she agrees with Tennies that he does not suffer from psychosis at this point.

“His pathology runs deep,” she said. “It’s a lifetime ingrained … Long Creek is very structured, and life is not.”

Braeder said in-home providers and the school had previously reported to DHHS that they worried he would harm his grandmother.

Braeder said Sylvester began exhibiting antisocial behavior at age 8, which she said is among a number of risk factors that cause her to be concerned that the amount of time Sylvester would remain in the juvenile justice system would not be enough for significant progress.

Questioned by the defense, Braeder said Sylvester has shown improvement at Long Creek, but that she believes his behavior there is partly because he is trying to persuade the judicial system not to try him as an adult.

“I’m saying he understands, accurately, that this is a big deal, and it would be surprising to me if he didn’t behave better, or try,” she said.

Teen accused of killing grandmother suffered abuse for years, expert testifies

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Dominic Sylvester is not eligible for parole until 2041

Lionel Tate Teen Killer Murders 6 Year Old Girl

Lionel Tate was twelve years old when he fatally beat a six year old girl. According to court documents Lionel was suppose to be watching the six year old girl when the attack took place. Due to the severe nature of the injuries Lionel excuse of play fighting was not accepted by the jury who would find him guilty and he would receive a life sentence becoming the youngest person in the United States to receive such a sentence. On appeal Tate would be able to get out of prison however he would be sent back a year or so later for an armed robbery. This teen killer was given a thirty year sentence

Lionel Tate 2023 Information

DC Number:	L24475
Name:	TATE, LIONEL
Race:	BLACK
Sex:	MALE
Birth Date:	01/30/1988
Initial Receipt Date:	06/06/2006
Current Facility:	SOUTH BAY C.F.
Current Custody:	CLOSE
Current Release Date:	04/28/2031

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been 15 years since Broward County‘s Lionel Tate became in 2001 the youngest American sentenced to life in prison.

That sentence, and the case’s circumstances, aren’t any easier to accept for those closest to the case, despite the time that’s passed.

Seven of those participants — including the judge and lawyers who were part of Tate’s trial in 2001 — formed a panel Friday morning at the Broward County Crime Commission’s conference on juvenile and adolescent violence. They met to discuss and reflect upon the landmark case of the local boy convicted of first-degree murder in the death of a 6-year-old playmate.

Jim Lewis, Tate’s attorney during the murder trial, said a chief regret is personal: He became too close to the boy. Lewis said he took Tate bowling and introduced him to his own kids.

“If I made any mistake in the case, I became too close to him and probably because he really didn’t have a father in his life, was more of a father than a lawyer,” Lewis said. “I didn’t want him to go to prison for three years, either.”

The boy’s legal defense team notably declined a plea deal offer from then-prosecutor Ken Padowitz that would’ve sentenced him to three years in a juvenile center, one year of house arrest and 10 years of probation on a reduced second-degree charge.

But Lionel, who was charged with killing Tiffany Eunick in 1999 when Tate was 12 years old, had a case fraught with complications from the start, Lewis and others agreed.

The justice system wasn’t prepared to handle a brutally violent case involving such a young defendant, they said.

Padowitz said he thinks those circumstances tied his hands. Wanting to be a “minister of justice,” Padowitz said, he instead had to be prosecutorial.

Tate was stuck “between a rock and a hard place,” faced with pursuing standard sentences either in the juvenile or adult systems that Padowitz considered unjust. Padowitz said he left it up to a grand jury, which charged Tate as an adult for first-degree murder. “I tried to do the right thing,” he said.

Senior Broward County Judge Joel Lazarus, who presided over the case, said he regrets “to this day” he didn’t appoint an attorney to work directly with Tate and oversee a psychological evaluation until after the appeals court ruling.

“The issue of competency … seemed to take a back-burner,” Lazarus said.

After an appeals court threw out Lionel Tate’s lifetime prison sentence in 2003, the teen violated the terms of his probation by taking part in an armed robbery of a pizza-delivery man and is now serving a 30-year prison sentence.

Tate, currently held at Everglades Correctional Institution in Miami-Dade County, is scheduled to be released from prison on Sept. 16, 2030, state records show.

Tate’s time in prison led to a “deeper dive” toward more run-ins with law enforcement, said David Watkins, director of equity and academic attainment at Broward County Public Schools. Watkins oversaw Tate’s education after sentencing.

“I knew he was gone,” Watkins said after the panel. “He was institutionalized at this point.”

Although the case had its complications, Padowitz said the justice system has since improved on how similar trials are handled.

“I really think that if there’s anything to be said about this case, it’s that it did have an impact nationwide, it did have an impact on legislation,” the former prosecutor said. “It made people really examine and think about what are we doing in this system. And provide alternatives that are appropriate age-based punishments and rehabilitation

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Lionel Tate is currently incarcerated at Charlotte Correctional Institute in Florida

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Lionel Tate is scheduled for release in 2030