A teenager charged with arson and animal cruelty after his family's home was gutted by fire will spend nine months to a year in a juvenile facility as part of a plea agreement reached with the Broward State Attorney's office.
The family dog died, and 11 members of his family were displaced when their home in the Rock Creek subdivision caught on fire Jan. 12 after the boy burned a photo of a girlfriend in the garage.
The teenager has had several run-ins with police since 1999, and prosecutors had the option of trying him as an adult. His lawyer, Paul Molle, said at a Jan. 14 hearing that the boy had been in ``ongoing therapy.''
He will receive some type of psychological evaluation and therapy while he serves his sentence, Molle said Monday, one week after the agreement was reached.
''Keeping it in juvenile court leaves his future open to him,'' Molle said. "That's the most important thing. It would have been devastating if he'd been charged as an adult.''
The investigation found that the picture the boy set on fire had not completely extinquished before the boy left the garage. When he discovered the fire, he brought the dog out of the house, but he lost control of the dog and it ran back into the burning home, inhaling quite a bit of smoke. The dog then came back outside but died on the front lawn after firefighters tried to save it. Neighborhood MapFor more information about the Interactive Animal Cruelty Maps, see the map notes.
Back to Top References | The Miami Herald | | The St. Petersburg Times |
« FL State Animal Cruelty Map
|