An Eight-year-old Was RAPED AND KILLED by a Teenager Who Had LURED HER WITH ICE CREAM to His House; He May Now Be Released
A California county court is debating whether to free Adrian Jerry Gonzalez, a teenager who brutally murdered his 8-year-old neighbor Madyson “Maddy” Middleton.
Gonzalez, who pleaded guilty to the 2015 killing in 2021, is presently incarcerated in a youth prison in Sonoma County but will be released from the juvenile system later this year when he becomes 25.
Gonzalez was 15 when, as Middleton’s neighbor at the Tannery Arts Center apartment complex in Santa Cruz, he enticed the 8-year-old to his unit with an offer of ice cream, according to prosecutors.
Once inside, Gonzalez grabbed the youngster by the throat, taped her mouth shut, and choked her. He sexually abused her, believing she was dead, and then disposed of her body in an apartment complex trash bin.
“Adrian decided to kill Madyson to prevent her from reporting his behavior to their mothers, who were friends,” Santa Cruz County Chief Deputy District Attorney Tara George stated in court this week, according to the San Jose Mercury News. “Adrian choked Madyson for about 15 to 30 minutes until she was blue.”
The tragedy stunned Santa Cruz, a small seaside town on California’s Central Coast.
“We are just crushed. “These are two of our children, one dead and one taken away,” one homeowner told The Los Angeles Times. “This is the most horrible thing you can imagine.”
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The DA’s office and the Santa Cruz County Probation Department both oppose Gonzalez’s release.
In May, the prosecutor’s office filed a challenge to Gonzalez’s discharge.
The Santa Cruz County Superior Court will hear testimony until the end of the month and then rule if the county has probable cause to seek the postponement. If the court rules in favor of the prosecution, the case will be tried before a jury.
Gonzalez was prosecuted as an adult, but before his trial, California approved SB 1391 in 2019, which prohibits the state from trying 14 and 15-year-olds as adult offenders, causing the case to be transferred to juvenile court.
Gonzalez’s destiny was further influenced by state policy in 2023 when the state disbanded its distinct juvenile justice prison system and returned young offenders to the counties where they were prosecuted.
Santa Cruz, which lacked suitable facilities, transported the youngsters to Sonoma County.
Ashley Mowrey, a clinical forensic psychologist at the San Francisco Forensic Institute, testified in court that Gonzalez scored above average on one sexual risk assessment test and moderate risk on another, but no signs of pedophilia or sexual sadism were found, according to Lookout Santa Cruz.