Jerry Boot Faces Murder Trial As Adult Supreme Court Upholds Law Waiving Juvenile Hearing

The state Supreme Court on Thursday upheld a 1994 law that allows prosecutors to try certain 16- and 17-year-olds as adults without first holding a juvenile court hearing.

The unanimous opinion, written by Justice Phil Talmadge, paves the way for the premeditated first-degree murder trial in adult court of Jerry Julius Boot of Spokane. Prosecutors say Boot, on Dec. 27, 1994, when he was 16, helped force a young woman into the back of a car at gunpoint before shooting her in the head and robbing her.

Felicia Reese, 22, was abducted from the parking lot of the former Sheraton-Spokane Hotel in downtown Spokane, where she was attending a church conference.

Prosecutors said they would try Boot as an adult under a 1994 law that says 16- and 17-year-olds who commit certain violent offenses must be tried as adults.

That change in the law eliminates the option a Juvenile Court usually has at a “declination” hearing, deciding whether a youth is tried as an adult or not. For serious crimes like murder, the difference in penalties for an adult are much higher than for a juvenile.

Police say Boot and his cousin, Kevin Boot, 20, killed Reese as part of a two-day crime spree that included a robbery and attempted murder of two Spokane teens.

Kevin Boot was convicted of aggravated murder earlier this year and sentenced to life in prison.

During Kevin Boot’s trial, both teens accused the other of killing Reese.

Jerry Boot’s defense attorney, John Rodgers, argued the automatic nature of that 1994 law was one reason why he saw it as unconstitutional.

He said the 1994 law denied Boot’s right of due process and equal protection under the law.

The justices, however, rejected that argument and upheld the law. Rodgers added that he’ll review options while a trial date is being set. One choice is challenging the automatic declination law in federal court.

, DataTimes