By Janice Morse
The Cincinnati Enquirer

HAMILTON - A 17-year-old Hamilton County teen will be tried as an adult on allegations that he beat and raped a 57-year-old woman at the Hamilton YWCA March 7.

Butler County Juvenile Court Judge Ronald R. Craft on Tuesday ordered the case against Terrell Wilkins transferred to Common Pleas Court after a brief, uncontested hearing. The judge also ordered that Wilkins be moved from the county Juvenile Detention Center and placed in the county jail, where he will remain unless he posts $500,000 cash bond.

The woman who reported the attack attended; her face was still bruised, and she became tearful when Wilkins was led into the courtroom.

Police said the attack occurred in a basement classroom of the YWCA, where Wilkins was participating in a literacy program. The woman was hospitalized for two days afterward.

Wilkins, whose parents list an Over-the-Rhine address, had repeated contacts with Hamilton County Juvenile Court, officials said. A nonprofit organization called Hamilton Choices placed him in the Discovery for Youth organization in the city of Hamilton, where he was living at the time of the alleged attack. YWCA officials have said they did not know Wilkins presented a risk to staff.

Wilkins told the judge he wanted authorities "to just put me somewhere so I can do my time and get out." Craft explained Wilkins' guilt or innocence would have to be decided in later proceedings.

Wilkins' lawyer, Tim Carlson, and his mother, Antoinette Wilkins, indicated mental health issues could be a factor in the case.

"I want him to have a psychiatric evaluation," his mother told the judge.

Michael Hon, an assistant prosecutor, said a grand jury will now be asked to consider whether to indict Wilkins on the charges he faces: rape and felonious assault.

If those charges stick and he is convicted, he faces up to 10 years in prison on the rape charge and two to eight years for the felonious assault.

E-mail jmorse@enquirer.com