MILWAUKEE — Two people accused of killing a 5-year-old Milwaukee boy and disposing his body in a dumpster made their first court appearance Tuesday.
15-year-old Erik Mendoza and 27-year-old David Pietura are facing first-degree intentional homicide charges for the death of McCree.
TMJ4 News doesn't typically name minors charged with a crime, however, we are naming Mendoza in this case due to the seriousness of the crime and because he's charged as an adult.
In Wisconsin, any person over the age of 10 who commits serious enough crimes is charged as an adult. That's the case for 15-year-old Mendoza.
Mendoza is charged with first-degree intentional homicide, physical abuse of a child, hiding a corpse, and recklessly endangering safety.
"It's disturbing. The allegations against Mr. Mendoza are awful," Jonathan LaVoy said.
LaVoy's a criminal defense attorney with Kim and LaVoy.
He said the charges Mendoza is facing weigh even heavier for him because he's a minor.
"In this case, the state of Wisconsin through the district attorney's office elected to charge a first-degree intentional homicide, and that's based on the facts as contained in the complaint. So, once that occurs in Wisconsin, the child automatically goes to adult court to start," LaVoy explained.
LaVoy said if probable cause is found at Mendoza's preliminary hearing, his attorneys could ask the judge to charge him as a juvenile.
"Without a doubt, the child's attorneys are gonna file for a request to return it to juvenile court. That would be an obvious and normal practice. The court's gonna have a substantial hearing where there will be testimony from doctors or people involved in the investigation to determine whether or not the child fits the criteria," LaVoy added.
Practice that's normal, but results that LaVoy said are hard to see through.
"I just think in this case the facts are so severe that it may be difficult for a judge to determine that the appropriate place is in juvenile court and not in adult court," LaVoy said.
A preliminary hearing hasn't been scheduled for Pietura or Mendoza.
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