Sep 12, 2008 8:45 am US/Eastern
Dramatic Testimony In Michael Hernandez Trial
He's Accused Of Killing A Schoolmate At Southwood Middle School Four Years Ago
ORLANDO (CBS4) ―
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Michael Hernandez in Orlando as jury selection got underway on Sept. 8, 2008.
CBS
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Jamie Gough was stabbed to death in the bathroom of Southwood Middle School in February, 2004.
CBS4 News
Testimony resumes Friday at the Michael Hernandez trial, the South Florida teenager who stands accused of murdering his friend in a bathroom at Southwood middle school.
On Thursday, school security guard Roman Nelson testified. He cried on the stand as he described finding the 14-year-old victim, Jaime Gough covered in blood inside a second floor bathroom at the Southwest Miami-Dade school.
Also on Thursday, former classmate Maylin Espinosa said she shared a computer class with Hernandez in which he displayed a morbid fascination with grisly websites depicting "decapitated corpses" and vampire figures. Hernandez smiled once or twice and nodded his head as Espinosa testified.
The case is being heard in an Orlando courtroom in hopes of having a jury that is not biased with the extensive local media coverage in Miami.
Hernandez, now 18-years-old, was 14 at the time of the alleged murder. He faces life in prison if convicted of the 2004 killing of Gough in the bathroom of the school. Gough was stabbed more than 40 times and nearly decapitated in the attack.
Miami-Dade assistant state attorney Karin Kahgan said in her opening statement that Hernandez killed Gough as part of a plan to become a serial killer. She described how he committed the crime and then went to his first period class.
''His life was literally ebbing away with the blood that was cascading from him onto the bathroom floor,'' she said during a brief opening statement. ``Until he died. Alone.''
A journal later recovered by police showed that Hernandez carefully planned the slaying and had a "hit list" that included another student and his older sister.
Prosecutor Kahgan also read excerpts from Hernandez's confession to police on the day of the murder, in which the boy calmly described luring his friend to the washroom and murdering him.
"So much of Jaime's blood had spilled," Kahgan told jurors, that it covered his eyeglasses that had fallen to the floor in the struggle.
The prosecutor quoted Hernandez as matter of factly describing the beginning of the attack on Jaime.
"'I took the knife out, and I proceeded to slice his throat,"' Kahgan quoted Hernandez as saying.
When asked how he made sure that Jaime was dead, the prosecutor said Hernandez told detectives that "I took my knife and I poked him in the face."
Defense attorney Richard Rosenbaum told jurors that defense experts will testify that Hernandez was "crazy" at the time of the killing.
Hernandez has pleaded not guilty because of insanity. Defense attorney Richard Rosenbaum said the evidence will show "this is a classic case of insanity."
Rosenbaum said Hernandez had a fascination with serial killers, heard voices in his head, even sought and took advice from "the family dog."
"This is a classic insanity case," the defense attorney said.
"His heroes weren't G.I. Joe or Batman," Rosenbaum said. "They were Hannibal Lechter" and Son of Sam.
The defense attorney told jurors they will hear from state experts who disagree with the notion that Hernandez was legally insane, that while the boy may have been mentally ill, he was able to determine right from wrong.
"You will have to decide which opinions you find more credible," he told the jury.
The Hernandez case was moved to Orlando after efforts to seat a jury in Miami were unsuccessful in May. Too many prospective jurors said they had heard too much about the case to judge it fairly.
The Orlando panel of twelve jurors and three alternates is expected to hear four to six weeks of testimony, including the opinions of as many as six psychologists and psychiatrists who may be called by the two sides.
Jaime Gough's parents watched the opening day of trial from a front row in the courtroom, declining to speak with reporters after court was adjourned for the day.
Lawyers for Hernandez previously turned down a plea deal offered by prosecutors that would have given Hernandez a 40-year prison term. The attorney's turned down the offer because they were seeking a prison term of no more than 30-years.
Instead, Hernandez will go forward with an insanity defense that is viewed as a long shot by many observers. Even his own attorney had advised him earlier to take the plea bargain.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
Double Homicide In NW Miami-Dade
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