Under California law, those convicted for crimes as juveniles, even if it's murder, are eligible for release on their 25th birthday unless prosecutors have proven their continued danger to the public. And now 25-year-old Adrian Jerry "AJ" Gonzalez is hoping to be set free despite admitting to the 2015 murder of his 8-year-old neighbor, Maddy Middleton.
The two-month trial of Gonzalez is about to conclude in Santa Cruz County, and as KRON4 reports, jurors have heard, among other witnesses, from psychologists called by both the prosecution and the defense to testify about Gonzalez's state of mind both at the time of the murder and in more recent years.
On Monday, Gonzalez’s defense attorney, Charlie Stevens, called to the stand forensic psychologist and Stanford professor Dr. Roger Karlsson, who evaluated Gonzalez through in-person interviews, psychological tests, police reports, and more.
Per KRON4, Karlsson administered a test known as PCL-R to determine psychopathy in Gonzalez. And as he told the jury, "As an adult, his score was moderate. I gave him a score of 17, which is 13 points lower than what is considered a psychopath." He explained that Gonzalez scored higher than the average person, but considerably lower than the score of 30 considered a marker of psychopaths.
Karlsson further testified that Gonzalez showed "average intelligence," and he said he was "pretty convinced" that Gonzalez has some form of autism.
Assistant District Attorney Tara George has argued that Gonzalez's case is anomalous, particularly among juvenile offenders. (Also, Middleton's friends and family have been protesting outside the courthouse with signs like "Ed Kemper also killed at 15 and was released on parole a short while later," referring to the prolific serial killer.)
As Lookout Santa Cruz reported from the opening of the trial in late November, George said in her opening statement that experts remain at a loss for explaining Gonzalez's entire motive for the murder, and psychologists who reviewed the case had "never seen a crime like this committed by somebody of his age."
The crime was, in fact, brutal and unsettling. Gonzalez admitted in July 2015 to luring Middleton to the apartment he shared with his mother on the promise of giving her ice cream. There, intending to gratify his dark sexual urges and then take his own life, Gonzalez strangled Middleton for 30 minutes, and then sexually assaulted her. When he realized she was still alive, he stabbed her in the neck.
Believing he would be dead before he could face consequences, Gonzalez stuffed the girl's body into a recycling bin in the building's garage, where she was soon found.
George argued that Gonzalez "has no emotion, sheds no tears, there is no regret, and no remorse" for the crime.
After years without a trial, amid disagreement over whether to try him as an adult, Gonzalez pleaded guilty to the murder in 2021, opening up the possibility that he could be released when he turned 25.
Last August, a judge ruled that Gonzalez should finally stand trial in order for that to be decided.
