Judge rules in Turlock High School stabbing case. The victim’s mom reacts

The youth accused of stabbing a fellow Turlock High Student on campus in 2021 will not be prosecuted in adult court, as the victim and his mother had hoped he would.

“In making this finding, the Court in no way minimizes the seriousness of the offense specifically the unprovoked, violent, and bloody stabbing of [the victim],” Judge Ruben Villalobos said in his written ruling. “It is clear ... that this unprovoked attack will lead to lifelong consequences for the victim.”

But, he said, under the law he must consider the mental health of the suspect, who was diagnosed with schizophrenia subsequent to the attack.

Villalobos said he could “not identify a rational motive or reason for the attack. Rather, the evidence of the hearing established a likelihood that this attack was the result of a psychotic break.”

The attack occurred Nov. 5, 2021, when both the victim and the suspect were 17-year-old seniors at Turlock High. According to testimony during a four-day transfer hearing in Stanislaus Juvenile Court this month, the suspect approached the victim during passing periods and began punching, then stabbing him in the head, neck, torso and back using a knife with a three-inch blade.

The suspect was arrested and charged with attempted murder and the Stanislaus County District Attorney’s Office petitioned to have him prosecuted as an adult.

Minors at least 16 years of age at the time of a serious offense like attempted murder can be transferred to and tried in adult court if a judge determines it is appropriate based on factors including the degree of criminal sophistication exhibited by the minor; the circumstances and gravity of the offense; the suspect’s criminal history; and whether he can be rehabilitated before the juvenile court’s jurisdiction expires.

Convictions in adult criminal court for serious offenses typically result in much longer periods of incarceration than in juvenile court, which has jurisdiction only until the youth turns 25. At that time the youth must be released from Juvenile Hall, or if already released, supervision by the court ends.

Thursday’s ruling only addressed jurisdiction of the case, not whether the suspect is innocent or guilty of the crime. That will be determined in a later hearing.

Always looking over his shoulder

The victim and his mother, Maribel Covarrubias, said they were disappointed by the ruling.

The victim said the boy who attacked him as he walked from his first period weight training class to his second period science class had “the mindset of an adult.”

The suspect said nothing to the victim before allegedly stabbing him more than 20 times, holding onto his backpack so he couldn’t get away.

The victim thought he was going to die of blood loss. He testified during the transfer hearing that he has lasting ligament damage in his hands and suffers from depression and anxiety. He said on Thursday that he gets anxious being in crowds or being outside at all sometimes; he’s always looking over his shoulder.

According to testimony, the suspect and victim knew each other but were not close. The only perceivable negative interaction between the two was a previous comment made by the victim calling the suspect a “white boy.”

But after his arrest, the suspect gave a number of other reasons for the alleged attack on the victim, from accusations that two girls, in concert with the victim, drugged and raped him, to statements that the victim gave him bad relationship advice. These are evidence of his psychotic break, Villalobos said in the ruling.

A clinical psychologist testified that, as a result of the suspect’s schizophrenia, he had delusions about the actions of others and a tendency to “overinterpret minor slights.”

Within a week of his arrest, the suspect told a clinician in Juvenile Hall that he had a list of five other students he wanted to “get in the same way he got [the victim],” according to testimony. A Turlock police officer identified and contacted all but one person on the list and all said they either barely knew the suspect or didn’t know him at all.

The suspect’s first plan — before the stabbing — was to harm the victim and the others on the list by hitting them in the head with a crowbar, according to testimony.

Covarrubias said she fears that when the victim is released, almost certainly sooner than if he had been transferred to adult court, he will again attack her son and make good on his plans to harm the others on the list.

“I don’t feel this is justice,” she said. ”My son, for the rest of his life, he’s scarred. Mentally he is not fine.”

She called the attack on her son vicious and premeditated.

Evidence was presented that the suspect planned the attack for as long as a year, that he brought the knife to school for two weeks before allegedly acting on the plan, and chose the sharpest knife he had access to.

Villalobos said in his ruling, “While there was planning by [the youth], that planning was done within the context of his psychotic break. The facts in the case ... are inconsistent with a finding of sophistication.”

On the path of rehabilitation

Covarrubias said the suspect’s mother approached her after one of the hearings and told her she and her son were sorry. Covarrubias said she appreciates the mother’s gesture but doesn’t believe the suspect is remorseful.

Remorse was an issue that Deputy District Attorney Jon Appleby focused on during his questioning of the psychologist and the probation officer assigned the the case. Both interviewed the suspect and recommended he remain in the jurisdiction of the juvenile court. Both their reports mentioned the suspect’s remorse but there were unanswered questions about whether he was remorseful about getting caught or remorseful about what happened to the victim.

The suspect’s attorney, Lawrence Niermeyer, said, “I think [my client] expressed his remorse to both the professionals and it was within each report that he did so.”

“I certainly agree with the judge’s ruling,” he said, “I think that the evidence presented before the judge clearly supports his ruling. I think [my client] will be best served remaining in juvenile court.”

In addition to the suspect’s mental state, Judge Villalobos considered other factors including the absence of a criminal history by the suspect and his behavior while in Juvenile Hall.

Apart from a few incidents in the first few months following his arrest, the suspect has had “exemplary” behavior in Juvenile Hall — becoming stabilized on medication, graduating from high school and starting college courses, Villalobos said in his ruling.

“The Court specifically finds that based on the evidence, if [the youth] were to be [found] responsible in juvenile court, he could likely be rehabilitated before the end of juvenile jurisdiction,” Villalobos wrote in his ruling, adding that he already is “well on the path of rehabilitation.”

The case will return to court for a pretrial hearing on Aug. 22.