Court Opinion

ID: 9531810
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 04:14:42.965942+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:28:35.174156
License: Public Domain

RILEY, Judge,
concurring in part and dissenting in part with separate opinion.
I concur in part and dissent in part. I agree with the majority that the trial court did not abuse its discretion by waiving Roberson to its adult docket. However, I believe that Roberson's thirty-eight-year sentence is inappropriate in light of his youth and his well-documented history of mental health problems.
I acknowledge that the nature of Roberson's offense was disturbing. He planned a potentially-fatal attack on a classmate and executed that plan during school hours, in front of other students. Regard*453ing Roberson's character, the attack that gave rise to this case was preceded by an earlier suspension from school for fighting, and Roberson allegedly threatened the lives of another boy and his family while this case was pending. Still, several considerations leave me convinced that a thirty-eight-year sentence is unduly harsh.
The majority writes, "We are not unaware of Roberson's history of mental illness and acknowledge that there may well be a nexus between his illnesses and his crimes." Op. at 452. For the most part, however, the majority disregards the actual extent of Roberson's history of mental illness. Because I believe that history is relevant to the appropriateness of Roberson's sentence, I summarize it here.
Roberson, who was born on October 22, 1990, had a tumultuous relationship with his father, a drug and alcohol user who had spent time in prison and who divorced Roberson's mother in 2001. Roberson first received mental health treatment in 2000, at the age of nine. He has a history of cutting himself. At the age of thirteen, Roberson ran away from home and was alleged to be a delinquent child, a charge that was later dropped. In 2005, Roberson tried to hang himself with a belt. When his mother stopped him, he tried to cut himself with a CD. After that incident, Roberson spent eight days in the hospital. Then, on October 12, 2006, Roberson, apparently upset by the possibility that his father would be going back to prison, cut himself and swallowed a large number of Tylenol in an effort to commit suicide. Even though Roberson was only fifteen years old at the time, he was prescribed Wellbutrin XL, which "is approved only for adults 18 years and over." (Defendant's Ex. 3). Roberson was not prescribed Wellbutrin by a psychiatrist, and while he was on it, he was not under the supervision of a psychiatrist. "He was therefore not aware of the side effects of this medication, nor of the possible consequences of suddenly discontinuing medication, which include outbursts of anger." (Appellant's App. p. 63).
In late October of 2006, Roberson stopped taking Wellbutrin without being instructed to do so by a doctor. On November 1, 2006, Roberson was suspended from school for fighting with another student. According to Roberson's mother, Roberson had never been aggressive or violent until he started taking Wellbutrin. As such, while he resumed taking Wellbut-rin, his mother set an appointment for November 30, 2006, to determine whether Roberson should have his medication adjusted. However, on the day of the appointment, Roberson was sick, so his mother cancelled the appointment. In early December, without having seen a doctor, Roberson again stopped taking Wellbutrin.
From this information, I gather the following. First, other than an allegation that he was a runaway in 2004, when he was thirteen years old, Roberson has had no other involvement with the adult or juvenile court systems.
Second, Roberson was only a month- and-a-half past his sixteenth birthday when he committed his offense. If he had committed his crime two months earlier, at the age of fifteen, chances are good that he would have been prosecuted as a juvenile and faced a significantly shorter sentence. The majority never onee mentions Roberson's age in its sentencing discussion. Just because Roberson was waived into adult court does not mean that he should have been treated like any other adult for purposes of sentencing, but that is the precise effect of the majority opinion.
Third, while the exact role that Roberson's mental illness played in his attack on L.P. is in dispute, there is no question *454that, as Dr. Lawlor put it, Roberson "clearly has a long history of mental illness, with diagnoses including major depressive disorder, oppositional defiant disorder, bipolar disorder, and borderline personality disorder." (Appellant's App. p. 348). Furthermore, while the doctors disagree as to whether Roberson's use of Wellbutrin contributed to the attack, there is no dispute that Wellbutrin is approved only for adults eighteen years and over, that Roberson was not prescribed Wellbut-rin by a psychiatrist, that he was not under the supervision of a psychiatrist while he was on it, and that he was therefore unaware of the side effects and of the possible consequences of suddenly discontinuing the medication. As his mother testified, he was never a violent person until he started taking Wellbutrin.
To be sure, Roberson still has significant issues to address. The majority correctly points out that Roberson has shown himself to be manipulative and that he has engaged in violent behavior on other occasions. His confrontation with B.C. while this case was pending indicates that he still has the potential to be a dangerous person and that a significant prison term is in the best interest of the safety and welfare of the public. But given Roberson's young age at the time of the attack, his lack of criminal history, and his long and documented history of mental illness and family problems, I believe that thirty-eight years is simply too much. Roberson was a kid at the time of his attack on L.P. A kid with a drug-using father who has been in and out of jail himself. A kid who had been prescribed an adult medication at the age of fifteen with only spotty supervision. I do not mean to exeuse Roberson's actions; I merely hope to put them in their proper context.
With a thirty-eight-year sentence, even if Roberson were to behave while incarcerated and earn good time credit, he would still serve almost twenty years in prison. If, on the other hand, we were to reduce Roberson's sentence to the still-significant minimum term of twenty years, he could potentially be released from prison closer to the age of twenty-five. Roberson is eighteen today, and his life's path is still undecided. There is something to be said for brightening the light at the end of the tunnel. In short, I do not believe that Roberson is a lost cause. I would remand this cause to the trial court with instructions to reduce Roberson's sentence to twenty-three years, with twenty years executed and three years suspended to probation. Therefore, I respectfully dissent.