Boy in Ferris case will be evaluated
A court commissioner decided Friday that a teen accused of attempting to kill a Ferris High School teacher should be evaluated to ensure that he is competent to stand trial.
Jacob Carr, 14, faces a charge of first-degree attempted murder and two other crimes. Police say he stole his mother’s boyfriend’s gun last month and took it to Ferris, where he intended to kill his former English teacher, Michelle Klein-Coles, and himself.
A hearing was scheduled by Commissioner Steve Grovdahl for May 3 to decide Carr’s competency, said deputy prosecuting attorney Bill Reeves.
The decision means that a ruling about whether to try Carr as an adult will wait until at least after that hearing. If convicted as a juvenile, Carr would face up to 19 months behind bars. As an adult, he could face 25 years in prison.
Reeves said his office will seek the perspectives of school officials and the victim next week about whether the case should be moved to adult court.
Carr’s attorney, Ronnie Rae, said his client does not understand the seriousness of the charges he faces and recently said he thought he would be going back to school after spring break.
“If he won’t help me on the juvenile level, how the heck am I going to be able to help him if the court decides to try him as an adult,” Rae said.
If the court decides that Carr is not competent to stand trial, he could be sent to a mental institution for treatment until deemed safe to be back in society, Rae said. That likely would be a period longer than he’d spend behind bars by pleading guilty to the charges in juvenile court, he said.
Father sentenced in baby’s murder
A man convicted of killing his 11-month-old son was sentenced on Friday to 26 2/3 years in prison, said Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Ed Hay.
James V. Adams, 20, was found guilty last month of murdering his son, Cadyn, whom he head-butted, squeezed and gagged. The murder occurred in May.
Adams received the longest possible sentence. The shortest would have been 20 years.
Cadyn’s grandfather spoke at the hearing and his mother wrote a letter that was read. Adams’ mother and family friends also spoke.
Two hurt in collision with cement truck
A Kia sedan crashed into a fully loaded cement truck Friday morning, clogging traffic at the intersection of Sprague Avenue and Division Street for more than an hour.
The Kia’s driver and a passenger – a woman and her daughter – were taken to Sacred Heart Medical Center with non-life-threatening injuries, police said. Their names were not immediately available.
The Kia was headed east on Sprague when it ran a red light at Division about 8:05 a.m., police said. The Kia’s driver will be cited for running a red light, police said.