Why 13-year-old accused of fatal stabbing at Santana Row won’t be charged as adult

Ever since 15-year-old David Gutierrez was beaten up allegedly by five suspected teenage gang members during a Valentine’s Day date at Santana Row and stabbed to death by the youngest, his family has been showing up at court hearings with three dozen supporters waving handmade signs demanding justice.

The boy police accuse of killing David is just 13.

“Adult crime. Adult Consequences,” the signs say. “He’s Not a Juvenile. He’s a Murderer.”

In California, a 13-year-old cannot be charged as an adult. State law since 2018 makes 16 the minimum age for charging juveniles in adult criminal court.

But that’s unacceptable to the family of David, his mother’s only child, who police say had no gang connections. The family is so distraught over their loss that on Tuesday, they remained deeply upset when a juvenile court judge released one of three 16-year-olds charged in the case, who police say was with the group that had beaten David before he was stabbed, into the care of his parents until his next hearing March 27.

“We’re heartbroken,” said David’s aunt, Diana Gutierrez, breaking into tears after the hearing.

Their calls for justice have focused mostly on the boy accused of killing David, however, and ask the question — what does justice look like for a 13-year-old accused of pulling out a knife and stabbing another boy, neither of them old enough for a driver’s license?

“A potentially life sentence doesn’t exist in juvenile court. So we’re going to be creative,” Alexander Adams, Santa Clara County supervising deputy district attorney, said outside juvenile hall after Tuesday’s hearing. “We’re going to be fair and just and try to find what is the appropriate solution to manage those goals of rehabilitation, accountability and victims rights.”

If the 13-year-old is found responsible for David’s death, he would likely be sent to a youth prison ranch for six to eight months for rehabilitation, Adams said, but the judge would have other options. Adams declined to specify what they might be. The boy also would be under court-supervised probation for years after that, Adams said.

The 13-year-old, who is not being named because he is a minor, was the first to throw a punch, striking David across the face, according to a police statement of facts based on surveillance camera footage and witness accounts, and it says he was the one who stabbed David and left him bleeding before running away. He is also a “validated 7th generation” gang member, according to the affidavit — another concern if he were to be returned to his family and San Jose neighborhood after less than a year at a youth ranch.

“Enough is enough. How many more loving kids and talented children like David need to be killed until we see real change?” asked David’s aunt Gutierrez, speaking to reporters with the crowd of supporters behind her. “When will we see fair sentences for murderers, regardless of their age? Would you consider eight months rehabilitation? I certainly don’t and neither should you.”

California law in 1961 set 16 as the minimum age for charging juveniles in adult criminal court. Concern about young gang members committing violent crimes led state lawmakers to lower the minimum age to 14 in 1994. Proposition 57, approved by voters in 2016, required prosecutors to go through a judge to charge juveniles in adult criminal court, and a 2018 state law raised the minimum age back to 16.

Defense lawyers have warned that making sweeping changes to the justice system in response to a single tragedy causes injustice itself and treating children like adults returns the criminal justice system to a time that actively failed communities of color.

The 13-year-old has yet to enter a plea and may make a case for self defense.

David’s girlfriend told police that David was confronted for wearing a red jacket — a rival gang’s color — then beaten to the ground. When a security guard broke up the fight, four of the five teens ran away, including an 18-year-old who is facing adult felony assault charges, along with the three 16-year-olds who are facing assault charges.

When the young couple then encountered the 13-year-old less than a minute later, David said he wanted to fight him “one-on-one,” the girlfriend told police. The 13-year-old declined, saying he already “got his hits in,” according to her account in a police affidavit. When David again said he wanted a one-on-one, it said, the boy pulled out a knife and stabbed David three times in the torso.

It’s unclear which of the three 16-year-olds was released with an ankle monitor Tuesday, but one of them apparently stood on the sidelines during the Valentine’s day altercation and “watched the fight very intently,” according to the police affidavit.

Adams said David’s father addressed the court and said he wasn’t concerned just for his own loss, but that releasing these minors puts other people at risk, too.