BOULDER – A judge is hearing testimony about the case of a 15-year-old boy accused of stabbing and killing a 20-year-old Longmont woman. The judge is hearing testimony about the November murder and to determine whether the teen will be tried as an adult.
9NEWS has chosen not to name the teen suspect, because of his age and since the case is still being heard in juvenile court.
The Boulder District Attorney’s office has charged the teen, now 16-years-old, with 11 counts, including first degree murder. The DA wants to move the case to district court.
According to court testimony, the first witness, a detective from Longmont Police, told the court, the teen had a “kill list” of people he intended to murder, the list included some of his friends and the ways people would be murdered.
The “kill list” or “death list,” as it was referred to in court, was found in the teen’s room. According to court testimony, the death list mentioned that the victim’s sister would be tortured.
The testimony did not reveal the number of names on the “death list.”
Investigators and family members identified the victim as Makayla Grote, 20.
According to court testimony, the suspect discussed the existence of the list with the victim’s sister on Snapchat on October 15. The suspect allegedly had an extensive conversation about the kill list with the victim’s sister, where she pressed him if he were kidding with the list, begging him not to hurt her friend, and offering to do “anything” to keep her friend safe, according to court testimony. The suspect wanted the last name for the sister’s friend, to supposedly keep her “off the list,” but the victim’s sister would not share that with him, according to court testimony.
The victim’s sister reported the conversation to police and Lakewood police confronted the suspect in his home October 16 in front of his parents about the list, a month before Grote’s stabbing death on November 18. But the teen told police he made up the existence of the list in his Snapchat with the victim’s sister.
A Lakewood police agent testified the suspect told him he was “stressed” and showed him evidence of cutting himself. The teen also told police he was taking Accutane for acne and it was “messing with his head.”
The Lakewood police agent told the court the police searched the suspect’s room that day, but didn’t find anything.
According to court testimony, the teen ran away from home twice in September, both times, stealing one of his parent’s cars and driving up to the mountains. The incidents were reported to law enforcement.
Today is the first day of the week-long hearing.
A defense attorney for the teen suspect told the court Monday that the boy had “no prior mental health diagnosis, until October of 2017, (when) he became erratic, aggressive, violent, suicidal, homicidal.”
The teen everyone knew was lost, the suspect’s defense attorney said in court.
The transfer hearing that started Monday in front of Judge Andrew Macdonald has a dual purpose, it’s a preliminary hearing, where evidence in the case is being laid out and it’s a transfer hearing, at the end of which Judge Macdonald will decide where the case will be tried and if the boy will be tried as an adult.
Testimony continues throughout the week.
It’s not clear yet if the judge will decide the future of this case at the end of testimony in court, or will issue a written decision later.
Anastasiya Bolton: anastasiya.bolton@9news.com
