Stabbing suspect could serve less time as an adult than as a juvenile

"A hearing has been set for March 12-13 to decide whether a 17-year-old Central Kitsap Alternative High School student will be charged as an adult or juvenile in last week's drug-related stabbing in Brownsville.The teen is being held on $50,000 bond for one count each of second-degree robbery and second-degree assault in the Feb. 21 incident.Mike Davis, chief of detectives for the Kitsap County Sheriff's Office, said some items related to the crime were found during a search of the boy's house.Deputy county prosecutor Jennifer Forbes of the Juvenile Division said a motion was filed to decline jurisdiction for the case to adult court, as mandated by state law because of the teen's age and the seriousness of the offense.The teen allegedly stabbed a 21-year-old Bremerton man on Paulson Road in Brownsville when a drug deal went bad, according to Davis.The victim initially told police he was stabbed by a hitchhiker he picked up while traveling south on Central Valley Road toward State Route 303. Detectives trying to put together a composite sketch of the attacker questioned his account after he changed his story.The man admitted he'd met the teen to sell him marijuana. But the teen took the drugs and stabbed the victim, and fled into the woods, the victim said.The victim also gave detectives a first name for the suspect, who was arrested as he left school Feb. 22.Forbes said the teen has a prior record of offenses, including a 1998 second-degree robbery conviction for which he spent time in the Juvenile Rehabilitation Administration facility.If convicted as a juvenile, the teen could serve a maximum sentence of 80-100 weeks on each charge in JRA, according to Forbes.There's irony in the fact that he could serve less time if convicted as an adult, she added.He could get 15-20 months for both charges in the adult system, and the terms run concurrently, Forbes said.She said one of the factors the court will consider in determining jurisdiction is whether all remedies have been exhausted in the juvenile system.Forbes said the suspect has been in the juvenile system since his first offense at age 13, in 1997, and has been through several probation officers.The prosecutor's office is definitely pursuing this as adult jurisdiction, Forbes said. "

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