6-Year-Old to Remain in Custody, Court Rules

MARTINEZ, Calif. — A 6-year-old boy charged with attempting to murder an infant must remain in Juvenile Hall at least until his next court hearing, which is scheduled for Wednesday, a Contra Costa County Juvenile Court referee ruled Friday.

The boy has been the youngest resident of Contra Costa Juvenile Hall since April 23, when he and 8-year-old twin boys were taken there after police arrested them on suspicion of beating month-old Ignacio Bermudez and stealing a Big Wheel tricycle from the Bermudez family’s Richmond apartment.

The 6-year-old is charged with attempted murder, conspiracy and burglary. The twins, who face charges of burglary, have been returned to the custody of family members, but remain under supervision of probation officers.

Contra Costa County Juvenile Court Referee Stephen Easton ruled Friday that freeing the 6-year-old would put the safety of both the boy and the community in jeopardy. Easton also denied a petition by attorneys representing the twins to dismiss the charges against them.

Attorney John L. Burris, retained by the 6-year-old’s family to represent the kindergartner, had asked that he be allowed to return home with his mother. Burris also asked that charges against the boy be dropped.

Legal experts believe that the child is the youngest person ever to face such serious charges in the United States.

But Burris said that a 6-year-old is not old enough to understand the consequences of his actions and that the boy has learning disabilities and is “functioning below a 6-year level” intellectually.

The boy, Burris said, “can’t talk about” the alleged attack on the infant. When asked about it, the child “puts his head down and retreats into another land,” Burris said.

The court instructed the defense and prosecution to decide by Wednesday on two psychiatrists or other children’s medical specialists to examine the boy and determine his competency to face criminal prosecution, Burris said.

Dressed in an aqua T-shirt and baggy pants issued to him by Juvenile Hall, the child doodled on Burris’ legal pad during the court proceedings. At one point, he told his lawyer, “I want to go home.” When the hearing ended, he hugged his mother, grandfather and grandmother.

Speaking to reporters afterward, the boy’s mother, Lisa Toliver, said she was dismayed by the court’s refusal to reunite her with her son.

“I’m kind of angry,” Toliver said. “It’s unfair. I’m a good mother. . . . I’m not unfit. I’m a hard-working mother.” Toliver said her son was “very well-protected and loved” in his home before the attack on the baby.

“He’s not an evil person,” she said of the boy. “Not one that would voluntarily hurt somebody . . . he has a sweet smile.”

On Thursday, Ignacio Bermudez’s condition was upgraded from critical to serious, said a spokeswoman for Children’s Hospital in Oakland. The infant, she said, is breathing on his own and opening his eyes.

But doctors said the baby is likely to have permanent brain damage. The infant, now 5 weeks old, appears unable to see and is suffering from involuntary muscle spasms. He remains on anti-seizure medication.

Prosecutor Harold Jewett, who decided to charge the 6-year-old with attempted murder because, he said, he believes that the boy knew what he was doing when he allegedly pummeled the infant, was shouted down by about a dozen protesters as he emerged from the hearing. The group, which members said was the National People’s Democratic Uhuru Movement of Oakland, had gathered outside the courtroom to denounce the prosecution of the boys as racist.

“Harold Jewett, you can’t hide, we charge you with genocide,” the group chanted.