FLAGSTAFF – After months of debating the issue, defense attorneys for a 9-year-old boy accused of a double homicide now know how their client will receive an education.
Apache County Superior Court Judge Michael Roca settled the matter Thursday, saying the boy will be educated through the county juvenile detention center. Those services are expected to continue until at least the next hearing in the case, which is scheduled for May 21.
The boy is out of custody pending a sentencing hearing, which hasn’t been set.
Defense attorneys had been pushing for the boy to be tutored through the school district.
The boy was a third-grader at a St. Johns elementary school before he was arrested in the Nov. 5 shooting deaths of his father, 29-year-old Vincent Romero, and his father’s roommate, 39-year-old Timothy Romans.
He pleaded guilty in February to negligent homicide in Romans’ death, and prosecutors agreed to drop a charge of premeditated murder stemming from Romero’s death as part of a plea deal.