The controversial case of Brandon McInerney who killed 15-year-old Larry King in what was an alleged hate crime will now come to a new fruition amidst today’s announcement that McInerney will now be tried as an adult.
The Ventura County Star reports that McInerney will face “murder charges with the special allegation of lying in wait” but in a surprising and contentious twist, the teen will not be charged with a hate crime. The next hearing is scheduled for Nov. 21.
This is not the first of twists in the McInerney case. Earlier last month, the murder trial ended with a hung jury as prosecutors scrambled to push the case forward alongside charges of “first-degree murder with a lying-in-wait special allegation.”
McInerney, 17, was 14-years-old when he shot classmate Larry King, then 15, in the back of the head. Stemming from King’s comments like “hey baby!” in the school’s hallways, McInerney explained to psychologist Douglas Hoagland, “I sat and I thought about it over and over. It didn’t calm me down. It made me more angry. All I could think about was I wanted to kill him,” the Los Angeles Times reported in August.
The new trial comes in wake of a DA’s declined offer of 25 years to life in prison. In his previous trial, the jury explained they were hung on the case due to the teen’s age when the crime happened.
Charging children as adults and subjecting them to life terms in prison is just as morally reprehensible as discrimination and hate towards an individual’s sexual orientation. Larry King’s murder was a terrible crime, but destroying his alleged killer’s young life is not just response, it is vengeance and it is wrong. If he is found guilty, Brad McInerery’s upbringing and ignorance at the age of only 14 does not condemn this kid to the throw away pile. He deserves a chance to change with the appropriate application of education and counselling, as well as the chance to leave prison a changed person. Larry’s memory will be served far more appropriately if we, as a society, can make a change in Brad rather than destroy him. The loss of one child is ENOUGH . . help Brad, don’t destroy him.
@Osborn, and Larry King deserves to have an education, a family, and all his dreams realized…but he is now a decomposed skeleton thanks to Brandon. King got what he didn’t deserve, and Brandon is getting what he deserves. The hell I’d allow him in public crossing my fingers – hoping he’ll be rehabilitated and have a grand epiphany.