Request For New Judge Is Granted In St. Johns Boy’s Homicide Case

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By Linda Kor
    A request for a change of judge in the case of a young St. Johns boy charged with negligent homicide has been granted after Judge Tom Wing of Navajo County heard the case Nov. 18 in Apache County Superior Court.
    According to a statement  presented by the courts, Judge Wing said he found sufficient grounds to disqualify Judge Pro Tem Michael P. Roca after reviewing the tran scri pt of an Oct. 22 hearing. The most controlling factor was conversations between Roca and juvenile probation department staff without legal council present.  Contributing to Judge Wing’s decision to grant the motion were statements made at Judge Roca’s  direction to the Apache County Attorney’s Office.
     Defense attorney Ronald Wood had asked that Judge Roca be disqualified from hearing the case, citing comments made by the judge at the Oct. 22 hearing. In the request presented to the court, Wood asserted the existence of a bias against the juvenile that would prevent him from getting a fair and impartial hearing on any matter that comes before Judge Roca.
    Apache County Attorney Michael Whiting supported the request. In response to the defense’s request for a change of judge, Whiting wrote, “The court’s continued desire to focus on the juvenile’s schooling as opposed to placing him in a secured treatment facility, its conflicting statements regarding available funding for treatment and its stated desire to selectively eliminate a few of the plea’s provisions cause the state great concern.”
    The 9-year-old boy was originally charged with the Nov. 5, 2008 shooting of his father and his father’s friend, Timothy Romans, at the boy’s home in St. Johns. A plea agreement was reached, with the boy pleading guilty to negligent homicide for the shooting death of Romans. The related to killing his father were dropped. As part of the agreement, the boy would not spend any time in the state juvenile corrections facility.
    A concern of both the defense and the state was that Judge Roca was considering denying portions of the plea agreement and sentencing the boy to the Arizona Department of Juvenile Corrections. Both the defense and the state were in agreement that the best service to the community and the boy would be to put him in an inpatient treatment facility.
    As a result of the hearing, Monica L. Stauffer, the presiding judge of Greenlee County Superior Court, has been assigned to the case. A scheduling/status conference has been scheduled at 11 a.m. on Thursday, Dec. 3, in the Apache County Superior Court.