Pruitt may be tried as adult
Teen charged with robbery and murder
EPHRATA — A hearing on whether an Othello teenager is tried as an adult for a March 2004 robbery and murder is going forward as scheduled next month.
Grant County Superior Court Judge Ken Jorgensen denied a request by prosecutors to delay a three-day "declination" hearing — which starts July 10 — until the middle of August.
Brandon Timothy Pruitt, 17, and his public defenders, Anthony W. Zinman and Brandon L. Redal, appeared in Grant County Juvenile Court Tuesday to resist further delay of the hearing, which was already continued in April and May.
Grant County deputy prosecutor Teresa Chen told Jorgensen mental evaluations prepared by three experts on Pruitt have not been issued. She said the evaluations must be received and reviewed to prepare for the hearing.
Grant County Juvenile Services, prosecutors and Pruitt's defense lawyers are all obtaining separate mental evaluations of the boy, who turns 18 in September.
Zinman said he's received the evaluation from the defense expert, Dr. Kenneth Muscatel of Seattle. Zinman provided Chen with a copy in court Tuesday.
Redal said they'd need to receive the evaluation by the prosecution expert, Dr. W. Timm Fredrickson of Spokane, at least a week before the hearing.
Pruitt is charged with first-degree murder in connection with the shooting death of Willow Lakes-area homeowner Michael B. Mallon, 79, a retired state worker and World War II Army veteran. Pruitt was 14 years old at the time of the alleged incident.
Prosecutors also filed lesser and alternative charges against Pruitt, including second-degree murder, first-degree manslaughter, robbery, burglary, theft of a firearm and possession of a stolen firearm.
Pruitt has not entered a plea to the charges. He's currently being held at the Grant County juvenile-detention center.
Pruitt's brother, 23-year-old Dustin Gene Abrams of Moses Lake, was sentenced in March to 24 years in prison for Mallon's murder. Abrams entered an Alford plea in Grant County Superior Court, not admitting guilt, but acknowledging a jury could convict him based on the evidence if the case proceeded to trial.
Mallon's family demanded prosecutors go to trial against Abrams on the previous charge of aggravated first-degree murder, which would've carried a mandatory life-prison term. Collen Mallon, Michael Mallon's daughter, has said she believes Abrams and others ambushed her father, shot and killed him, to cover up a robbery.
Abrams previously entered an Alford plea, in June 2004, to stealing guns, coins and a generator from Mallon, receiving 30 months in prison.
Court documents, filed with charging papers against Pruitt, state the boy told detectives he was with Abrams when Mallon's home was robbed.
If Pruitt turns 18 before a declination hearing, his case is likely to be sent to superior court, Grant County deputy prosecutor Carole L. Highland said. Zinman doesn't agree.
Jorgensen is to make the decision, following the hearing.
In the case of the February 2003 slaying of 13-year-old Craig Sorger at Ephrata's Oasis Park, both juvenile defendants, Jake Eakin and Evan Savoie, were moved to adult court. Eakin, of Moses Lake, and Savoie, of Ephrata, were both 12 years old when Sorger was murdered.
Psychologists hired by defense lawyers and prosecutors recommended Eakin and Savoie be tried as juveniles, as did juvenile-services counselors.
Grant County Superior Court Judge John Antosz ignored the recommendations. Antosz decided the killing was too vicious for prosecution in juvenile court and that no juvenile-treatment programs could provide public safety. Antosz's decision withstood appeal.