ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, April 29, 1996 TAG: 9604290130
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: RICHMOND, CALIF.
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
note: below
He's a poster boy for three-strikes laws - burglary, theft, assault and finally the near-fatal beating of a tiny infant, prosecutors say.
But he's only 6 years old, his legs too short to reach the floor from a chair in a juvenile courtroom.
The youngest child in the nation ever charged with attempted murder has confounded juvenile authorities debating whether to punish or help the boy - and how.
He listened impassively Friday to a juvenile prosecutor's chilling account of how he beat a neighbor's month-old baby with his fists, feet and an inch-thick stick. The attack left tiny Ignacio Bermudez Jr.'s skull fractured in two places, his brain damaged, his survival chances slim.
Prosecutors say the boy recruited two 8-year-old companions to break into the Bermudez house days after he went there and was thrown out.
``He entered the house with the idea of doing something,'' said Ignacio Bermudez Sr. ``He had a large stick. I threw him out. I'd never seen him before then.''
The boy apparently took deep offense. Prosecutors say he told others he planned to get back at the Bermudez family.
The 6-year-old, a first-grade special-education student, already had a reputation as a bully and a thief who liked to hit other kids with sticks. He would roam the ``Iron Triangle'' neighborhood in this San Francisco suburb while his mother worked in a day-care center.
``He was always sneaking out of the house on his mother,'' said Lola Ponce; she said he routinely stole toys from her yard.
The boy would travel the streets with stick in hand, threatening other children, trying to knock them off bicycles, pointing it at them like a gun, she said.
In school, he often tripped other children in the aisle. Many families wouldn't allow their children to play with him. Those who did often regretted it.
``He was always getting into trouble,'' said neighbor Sara Kammer. He liked to sneak into neighbors' homes. He'd steal whatever wasn't tied down - including tires.
Last Monday, the day of the beating, he hooked up with 8-year-old twin brothers from his elementary school. The twins have good grades and no history of discipline problems; their principal and teacher called them ``model citizens.''
The 6-year-old told them he had a plan to steal a Big Wheel tricycle from the Bermudez home. They went along.
The Bermudez family had borrowed a friend's car to go grocery shopping. Ignacio Jr. had a cough, so his parents left him with his 18-year-old half-sister, Maria Bermudez.
While the baby slept in the bassinet, the sister went to the bathroom. At that moment the three boys slipped in, apparently through an unlocked back door.
They found the Big Wheel. But the 6-year-old had an additional agenda, authorities say. He found the baby in the bassinet and went on a rampage.
``He beat this baby in the head with his feet, his fists and ultimately with a stick,'' Deputy District Attorney Harold Jewett said. A piece of broken stick was found in the bassinet.
``The baby didn't even cry,'' Maria Bermudez said. ``They must have hit him so hard in the head he was in shock.''
One of the boys picked the baby up and put him on a nearby bed before leaving with the Big Wheel. Police wouldn't say whether they thought the boys felt remorse or were childishly trying to hide their crime. They left with the Big Wheel.
Maria Bermudez found Ignacio Jr. on the bed and, bewildered, began to pick him up. She realized something was wrong and screamed, loud enough for neighbor Kammer to hear.
The boys were seen trying to hide the Big Wheel in the bushes. When a girl who learned of the attack said she was going to the police, the 6-year-old threatened her.
Now the boy sits in Contra Costa Juvenile Hall - the youngest child ever confined in the building - while the courts and society grope for an answer.
Prosecutors want him sent to a juvenile youth facility for years. The boy faces a preliminary hearing Friday. His two 8-year-old friends were released to their parents, charged only with burglary.
Dan Macallair, associate director of the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice in San Francisco, calls the idea of locking up a 6-year-old ludicrous. The boy should be sent home unless there is a drug or abuse problem in the household, he said.
Many interventions are possible, including family counseling, specialized in-home care, a temporary foster home or a long-term group home, he said.
The public defender, Leslie Blalik, wants the boy given to Child Protective Services, where he will be treated as a victim, not a criminal. The boy needs counseling a detention facility can't provide, she says.
Prosecutors doubt social workers are equipped to deal with a boy as dangerous as the 6-year-old.
``This young man is very angry,'' Jewett said. ``If he can be housed in a secure setting that also provides the other support tools he may be in need of, we have no objection to that. But we do have a great objection to his release, given his propensity toward violence.''
Dr. Glen Elliott, head of child and adolescent psychology at the University of California, San Francisco,
cautions that no one should expect miracles from counseling or psychiatry. Even at age 6, the boy's behavior may already be programmed, he says. ``They're not likely to change.''
Added Elliott, ``I don't know what to do.''
LENGTH: Long : 107 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP Ignacio Bermudez Sr. and Maria Carmen, with theirby CNBsons Elias (left) and Javier, can only ask why three boys beat up
their 4-week-old son, Ignacio. color