In addition, George lied about his grades, Assistant State's Attorney M. Virginia Miles said in her bid to keep the case in adult court. She said he told Beard that he had a 3.25 grade-point average in ninth grade, when "it turned out, very sadly for him, it is .625."
School records showed discipline, attendance and related problems from seventh grade on, Miles said. He had no juvenile record.
George was suspended from Arundel High School for three days for his role in an April 16 gang fight, in which he said in front of a school administrator that he would resolve the dispute in the streets, Miles said. It was one of his four discipline problems in the school year and involved several of the people who were in the group that encircled Christopher on May 30, Miles said.
George's family looked relieved at the end of a tense hearing in which the judge agreed with Beard that, if he is found to have taken part in the homicide, George would benefit from intense therapy in a locked juvenile facility - treatment that does not exist in prison.
Wachs said he feared if George were incarcerated, "he would come out worse than when he went in."
The volatile case has turned a spotlight on youth gangs. It led to a retaliatory firebombing, efforts to create a Crofton community center and an effort by Christopher's church to found a youth center.
Police said six people stopped and encircled Christopher as he was bicycling home to his waiting mother. Two hit him, causing an artery to snap and the youth to collapse as he struggled toward home, they said.
The dispute - Adkins said the same group was near the community pool a week earlier - was ignited by a belief that Christopher made a derogatory remark about someone in the gang. Police said Christopher was not in a gang but had friends in a rival gang.
