Teen in murder case won’t be tried as adult

Molly Ball

Tuesday, May 4, 2004 | 11:32 a.m.

Jake Reeder, the Henderson teenager who fatally shot his best friend last month and was charged as an adult with murder, will instead plead guilty in Juvenile Court to a lesser charge.

Meanwhile another youth faces adult murder charges in a similar case, leading some to question the state law that requires children charged with murder to be automatically tried as adults.

Reeder, 15, was to be transferred Monday after he agreed to plead guilty to involuntary manslaughter. The deal was announced at Reeder's bail hearing in Henderson on Monday morning.

Justice of the Peace Stephen George ordered that Reeder be transferred from the Clark County Detention Center to the county's juvenile facility.

A hearing in Juvenile Court this morning to determine whether Reeder could post bail from the juvenile facility was postponed until Wednesday after prosecutors said they hadn't had time to read a psychological evaluation.

Under Nevada law, a minor charged with murder is automatically tried as an adult. Reeder was charged with murder because prosecutors said that the involuntary killing occurred in connection with unlawful acts -- assault with a deadly weapon, aiming a firearm and drawing a firearm in a deadly manner.

On April 21, Reeder fatally shot his best friend, Dustin Osborn, 14, while playing with a gun he thought was not loaded. The two were playing "FBI" after smoking marijuana, police said.

Clark County Public Defender Philip Kohn said Reeder was scheduled in court this morning.

Kohn said the defense would push to have Reeder sentenced to probation. He could also be sentenced to the Spring Mountain Youth Camp or a state juvenile facility, Kohn said.

Kohn described the youth's two weeks in the county jail as "horrible," adding, "There's no way that facility is an appropriate facility for a 15-year-old child."

Kohn said that Reeder was kept in solitary confinement to protect him from the other detainees, meaning he was isolated 23 hours a day.

Kohn said he supports changing the state law to allow judges to decide whether to try youths charged with murder as adults or as juveniles.

"Absolutely, we will fight very hard next year in the Legislature to change the law (in order to) put the decision back in the hands of judges," Kohn said. He said the district attorney's office's decision to charge Reeder as an adult was "an abuse of their discretion."

But District Attorney David Roger said his office was bound by law to consider Reeder's offense a murder. "That (charge) did not mean that's where the case would end up," he added.

As for whether the state law was appropriate, Roger said he would "leave that up to the Legislature."

Another teenager found himself in the same situation over the weekend. Rocky Mendoza was charged as an adult with murder on Friday and taken into custody.

Mendoza, 15, accidentally shot his 14-year-old sister Erica in the head in March, killing her.

Rocky Mendoza's arraignment is scheduled for Wednesday morning.

At Reeder's hearing, Kohn said he hoped Mendoza could similarly be transferred to juvenile court.

"Rocky Mendoza is in the Detention Center and he doesn't belong there either," Kohn said, adding that Mendoza's family is in the process of hiring a private lawyer.

Delise Sartini of Moms on a Mission agreed with Kohn that the law should be changed and "juveniles should be tried in the juvenile system."

"The whole reason we have a juvenile system is that we believe children don't have the same decision-making skills, and they deserve a second chance -- and more importantly, they deserve to be rehabilitated," said Sartini, one of five members of the group of prominent local women that formed after three Henderson teens were killed in a drunken driving crash last year.

The Moms plan to urge legislators in next year's session to change the law that mandates trying youths charged with murder as adults and to devote more state resources to programs for juvenile offenders, Sartini said.

Sartini said she also supported holding parents accountable for failing to protect children.

"Where are the adults responsible for serving children alcohol?" she said. "Where are the adults responsible for keeping guns locked up? Our D.A. doesn't seem to be willing to pursue the adults responsible in these matters. He seems to be trying to make an example of the children."

So far, neither of the owners of the guns involved in the two cases has been charged.

"That's a troubling issue, and we're looking at potential prosecution," Roger said.

Under Nevada law, allowing a child to access a gun can be a misdemeanor. Irresponsible gun owners have also been charged with felony child endangerment.