Judge Michael B. Murphy denied public defenders' motions to find unconstitutional the law that required Murphy to have Agee tried as an adult without determining first whether he could be rehabilitated. The law, effective Jan. 1, required Murphy only to find the least amount of evidence Agee was involved in an aggravated murder.
As a juvenile, Agee could have been held until he turned 21.
Murphy ordered Agee transferred from juvenile detention to Montgomery County Jail on $250,000 bond while prosecutors take his case to a grand jury for indictment. Agee, though charged with aggravated murder and aggravated robbery, will not face the death penalty, limited to those 18 years and older.
Co-defendant Bryan Keith Singleton, 18, faces a possible death penalty if convicted. Singleton told police he shot Margaret Chain twice in the head with a double-barrelled derringer that Agee gave him just before the two went into the Sunoco Mini Mart at Ohio 741 and Alex Bell Road.
Daniel J. O'Brien, Agee's appointed guardian in the absence of the boy's parents, said defense attorneys will admit Agee gave Singleton the gun, but they will contend no one, including Agee, believed Singleton would `do what he said he was going to do.'
However, at a June 4 hearing before Murphy, a witness testified that Agee, several hours before the killing, brandished the gun, talked about killing someone and planned to rob the gas station store.
* CONTACT Rob Modic at 225-2282 or e-mail him at rob_modic@coxohio.com
CONTACT Rob Modic at 937-225-2282 or by e-mail at rob_modic@coxohio.com
PHOTO CREDIT: File