Citing concerns for safety and the accused youth, an Anne Arundel County judge barred the public from the trial of the younger of two teenagers charged in the May 30 death of 14-year-old Christopher David Jones of Crofton.
Judge Philip T. Caroom's ruling, issued Monday, allows the news media at the trial, but with a request that they voluntarily agree not to publish the names of the 14-year-old boy who is charged and names of witnesses who are juveniles.
Caroom issued the order after learning of death threats against the 14-year-old while the boy was at one detention center. He is charged as a juvenile with manslaughter and related counts; Javel George, 16, is facing identical charges but is being prosecuted as an adult.
The 14-year-old's public defenders asked Caroom to close the trial to the media and public for safety concerns and to protect their client from being "stigmatized" now and throughout his life in what has become a volatile case.
Despite Caroom's efforts Monday to keep the youth's name from being spread, his identity is known to many in the community, has been published by at least one news organization and appears in paperwork about the crime.
The case has been linked to gangs in the Crofton area. A firebombing of a Piney Orchard townhouse a few days later has been blamed by police on an attempt by four people - three of them teens - to retaliate for Christopher's death.
"There have been death threats made against [the juvenile] while he was at the Cheltenham Youth Facility and he had to be moved," said Assistant Public Defender Kara Donaldson.
"Our information from Juvenile Services is when [teenagers accused in the firebombing] were there, they were looking for my client and, they said, for the purpose of ... retaliation," Assistant Public Defender Kimber Watts said after the hearing.
Assistant State's Attorney Michael Bergeson said his office generally favors open proceedings.
In closing the courtroom to the general public, Caroom said he was balancing safety, the rehabilitation of a juvenile and the public's right to know.
The boy, whose name has not been published by The Baltimore Sun because he is charged as a juvenile, sat attentively during the hearing.
Caroom wrote, in part, that he found "that it is appropriate and in the interests of public safety and the security of the [accused juvenile] and other witnesses to exclude the general public from further hearings in this matter."
He made an exception for "the victim's family and others having direct interests." The order also asks news media to comply with other orders of the presiding judge in the interest of a fair trial.
Bergeson strongly objected to a request by the youth's lawyers to have him released to his parents pending the outcome of the trial, noting that he and the other teenager are accused of delivering fatal blows to Christopher. Caroom refused to release him.
Caroom also postponed the youth's trial from July 13 to Sept. 1. No trial date has been scheduled for George.
