US boy appeals prison sentence imposed at age 12

[Crunchy Frog]

15. Some further details of the case.

Colt Lundy ordered 12-year-old Chase Williams to enter the house through a window and serve as his backup. Chase was afraid of Colt and hesitated; Paul Henry protected Chase by climbing through the window instead. But Paul Henry never intended to help kill Danner, whom he’d never even met.

Inside the house, Colt pressed a loaded handgun into Paul Henry’s hand. As the two boys sat in the living room waiting for Danner to appear, Paul Henry tried to talk Colt out of his crazy plan.

Danner appeared in the doorway and suddenly charged, screaming obscenities. Colt fired twice, hitting Danner in the eye and chest. Paul Henry startled and fired twice with eyes closed—he still doesn’t know why. Events had unfolded so quickly and unexpectedly, he hadn’t had time to think.

One of his bullets had gone through a window, but another struck Danner in the side after Colt’s fatal shots.

Paul Henry Gingerich is a vulnerable child who was railroaded by the courts of Kosciusko County, Indiana, and has been placed in mortal danger in his present prison setting.

Following his arrest in Illinois—he, Williams, and Lundy were apprehended 200 miles away when a suspicious store clerk alerted police—Paul Henry was questioned without his parents or an attorney present, and did not understand his right to remain silent.

At a rushed waiver hearing for which his attorney was given only four business days to prepare, a police detective misinterpreted the facts of the case (which were being covered up by Colt’s family) and alleged that Paul Henry was involved in a “murder plot” which was, as far as Paul Henry knew until only minutes before, only a runaway plan.

http://justice4juveniles.com/index.php?topic=264.0