Houston sheriff: Huntington Middle student who brought gun to school may avoid charges if he moves out of state

WARNER ROBINS -- A 14-year-old boy walking out of a courtroom the same day he took a loaded pistol to Huntington Middle School in mid-August has sparked the ire of Houston County sheriff’s officials.

Sheriff Cullen Talton and his juvenile division investigators say a deal was made between the prosecutor and the teenager’s defense attorney that calls for all the charges to be dismissed if the eighth-grader moves out of state. And sheriff’s officials say they think the teen should have been detained and held accountable for his actions.

“It could have been another Columbine,” Talton said in reference to the nation’s deadliest high school shooting that left 13 dead and more than 20 wounded at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado.

“We’re talking about a loaded 9mm,” Talton said. “That’s absurd for them to agree to dismiss the charges.”

Assistant District Attorney Venita McCoy, the prosecutor who handled the case, declined comment. Chief Assistant District Attorney Erikka Williams declined to comment on the case, and efforts to reach Kameyan Sims, a Warner Robins attorney who represented the teen in court, were unsuccessful.

On the night of Friday, Aug. 15, the school’s assistant principal received an anonymous tip from a parent that the teen might have a gun on campus. He had shown the gun to another student, sheriff’s investigators said.

The next Monday morning, the assistant principal had the teen’s locker searched and asked him to empty his gym bag on her desk, according to a Warner Robins police report. He placed a T-shirt and a hat on her desk, and then placed the gym bag between his feet. She grabbed the bag, found the pistol inside and called police.

Weeks earlier, on July 5, the teen’s stepfather had reported the gun stolen from a dresser drawer where he kept it, according to a sheriff’s incident report.

When questioned by Warner Robins police School Resource Officer Jubencio Juan Garcia Jr., the teen said the gun was not his, that he didn’t know it was in his bag and that a Veterans High School student had asked to use the bag over the weekend and must have left the weapon inside, according to the Warner Robins police report.

Garcia placed the teen in custody on charges of theft by receiving stolen property, possession of a firearm on school grounds and underage possession of a pistol. The teenager was first booked and processed at Warner Robins police headquarters and then taken to the Houston County Juvenile Justice Complex and placed in a holding cell.

Sheriff’s investigators expected the student to automatically be taken to a Regional Youth Detention Center to await a Juvenile Court hearing because the firearm was loaded. But court was already being held that day, and the teen was taken before the judge on the underage possession charge, a misdemeanor, and the charge of carrying a weapon on school property, a felony. McCoy, the prosecutor, did not pursue the theft charge based on a request made by the stepfather, sheriff’s investigator Sgt. Adrienne Hilton said.

Hilton had been assigned the case when Warner Robins police turned the student over to the sheriff’s juvenile division. Hilton said she talked with Garcia over the court lunch break to be ready to testify at the hearing if needed. She thought the hearing was solely about whether to detain the teen.

During the hearing, the student’s attorney, Sims, told Houston County Juvenile Judge Deborah Edwards that the teen had been bullied and had taken the firearm to school for protection, Hilton said.

The disposition of the case was held in abeyance -- a temporary suspension -- to be revisited in 30 days. The teenager had not been in trouble before and had no criminal record, officials said. He was released to the custody of his parents.

Lt. Darin Meadows, Hilton’s supervisor, said at the very least the teenager should have been placed on probation and a psychological evaluation ordered. Meadows said Garcia told him the gun had 13 rounds of ammunition in it when found in the teen’s gym bag.

Sheriff’s Capt. Randall Banks, head of the sheriff’s juvenile division, said McCoy acted without first consulting the sheriff’s investigator, before Warner Robins police had filed an incident report and without Hilton being able to investigate the student’s conflicting claims.

Meadows wrote an email complaining to District Attorney George Hartwig about how McCoy handled the case.

“To be quite honest, I think it does a disservice to the citizens of Houston County, as well as our students and school system for this juvenile to go unpunished,” Meadows wrote. “There was another case some years ago where students felt threatened and bullied by their classmates. That school was Columbine, and those students also brought loaded guns to school as well.”

Williams, the chief assistant district attorney, responded to Meadows in an email, saying there may have been a better course of action and that the case may still be resolved in Houston County if the teenager does not leave the state.

Hartwig deferred comment to Williams.

Meanwhile, the sheriff said he was surprised that Edwards, the judge, signed off on the course of action.

Edwards said she could not talk about a pending case, but in general, there are numerous factors in state law that she must weigh regarding whether a juvenile should be detained. She said the state Legislature has restricted the reasons and the times that the court may detain a child, though she added she’s not saying that the restrictions necessarily would have applied in this case.

“All I can say is when I have to make a decision, I use my years of experience and training and do the best I can do,” Edwards said.

Edwards said she would have to look at juvenile law about whether she can release statistical information related to prior incidents of Houston County students bringing loaded firearms to school and how those cases were disposed of in Juvenile Court.

The teen’s case is the only one involving a student taking a loaded firearm to school this school year, Houston County schools spokeswoman Beth McLaughlin said by email. Statistical data for prior school years was not readily available.

Also, McLaughlin said she could not answer specific questions to the teenager’s discipline, prior incidents or attendance based on privacy laws. However, the school system’s policy states that possession of a firearm results in expulsion for at least one calendar year, she said.

To contact writer Becky Purser, call 256-9559, or follow her on Twitter @becpurser.

This story was originally published September 1, 2015 at 10:17 PM with the headline "Houston sheriff: Huntington Middle student who brought gun to school may avoid charges if he moves out of state."