Houston, Texas (KTRK) – A 16-year-old will be tried as an adult for the murder of a 20-year-old in 2021 in northeastern Harris County, according to records.
On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Michael Moore ruled that the teen be certified as an adult, according to Chief Prosecutor Allen Otto of the Harris County Juvenile Division.
The teen’s name was not released because the order was not submitted to the district clerk. The decision came after a day-long hearing at the Juvenile Justice Center.
“The juvenile justice system does not have the tools to deal with it, and keeping it in the juvenile justice system is a danger to the safety of the community,” Otto said after the session.
The suspect was 15 years old when HCSO investigators said he and an unidentified partner broke into a home in the Kingslake Forest neighborhood and shot Francisco Orozco, 20, who was hiding in a closet.
Orozco was home alone after his brother and sister-in-law went to the hospital with a medical emergency.
His sister Orozco described him as brilliant, thoughtful, and hardworking. She said he was planning to go to college and was meticulous about his car because he worked so hard to get it. Orozco was on the phone with a 9-1-1 operator before his death.
Otto recalls the heartbreaking plea: “You can feel the fear and hope that the law enforcement authorities will have time to get there, and then his life will be taken away from him.” “A completely innocent victim in this world, which lends to the gruesome nature of this crime.”
Besides the capital murder, the teen was charged with four other serious crimes in his neighborhood from July to November 2021. They are a home burglary and three aggravated burglaries.
After the hearing, Orozco’s family told ABC13 that testimony was the right decision and that’s what they wanted.
Accreditation has also become rarer in recent years.
“We’re looking at four or five degrees a year, which is a lot less than it has been in the past,” Otto said.
Otto explained that the decision to apply for certification is made by a committee and must meet several criteria.
During the trial for the murder of his parents, A.J. Armstrong was adopted as an adult when he was seventeen years old. Most recently, 16-year-old Auzavier Wartel was certified to be facing accusations of sexually assaulting his therapist.
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