By Jennifer Edwards
Enquirer staff writer

David Harris, a 14-year-old indicted Monday as an adult in the fatal shootings of two men, could spend the rest of his life in prison if he is convicted.

A 14-year-old boy indicted Monday as an adult in the fatal shootings of two men is believed to be the youngest person ever indicted in Hamilton County, officials said.

David Harris of Over-the-Rhine was indicted on one count of aggravated murder, one count of murder and two counts of aggravated robbery in the deaths of George Vance, 27, and David Hutchinson, 20. The men were robbed and killed fours days apart in May in Over-The-Rhine.

"This is something, this kind of a trend, we are seeing - more violent offenses committed by people at a younger age," Hamilton County Prosecutor Mike Allen said Monday. "Just based on the seriousness of the offense, we felt it was appropriate to ask the juvenile court to bind it over to adult court."

Ohio law states that 14 is the youngest age a juvenile can be tried as an adult. If convicted, the teen could spend the rest of his life in prison. Ohio law does not allow anyone under the age of 18 to be executed.

Harris next appears in court Sept. 9 before Hamilton County Common Pleas Court Magistrate Richard Bernat.

Harris remains in the Hamilton County Justice Center in lieu of $1.4 million bond. He is one of a handful of boys in the county's adult jail awaiting trial and is being held separate from adults, said Steve Barnett, sheriff's spokesman.

Harris is the 26th juvenile since Jan. 1 to be moved from juvenile to adult court in Hamilton County.

Also Monday, a Hamilton County grand jury indicted two 16-year-old boys in the June 8 killing of Anthony Davis, 48, of downtown.

That indictment charges Deangelo Williams of Northside and Shamon Turner of Over-the-Rhine with fatally shooting Davis on the porch of a house on Llewellyn Avenue in South Cumminsville. Williams and Turner were charged with aggravated murder and three counts of aggravated robbery.

Turner also faces two additional charges of aggravated robbery.

The teens are being held in the Hamilton County Justice Center in lieu of more than $1 million bond each, according to court records.

A court-ordered psychological evaluation of Harris paints a picture of a boy who was shuffled among relatives, who fell two grades behind at school and who preferred running the streets to staying in the Over-the-Rhine apartment he shared with his mother and four siblings.

Instead, Harris told a psychologist, he stayed in hotels, "hustling" to earn a living.

Harris' attorney, Assistant Hamilton County Public Defender Terry Weber, said Monday that since Harris has been indicted as an adult, he now will need to get a new lawyer. Weber said he expects the lawyer to be named today.

Monday's indictment, Weber stressed, sends the wrong message. State law already allows for juveniles charged in serious crimes to be treated differently.

"If you are going to give up on juveniles and not at least attempt to rehabilitate, why do we have a juvenile system?" he said. "We have a serious youthful offender classification, where you can hold an adult sentence over the youth's head. That's what that (law) was enacted for.

"Hold them until 21 and see if you can rehabilitate them," he added. "If not, you still can impose an adult sentence."

Kathleen Hart, who teaches child and adolescent psychology at Xavier University, sees both sides of the argument.

"It's unfortunate that a juvenile, particularly this young, doesn't have the opportunity for rehabilitation services that are available through the juvenile court," she said. "It does begin to raise the question of what role juvenile courts then are really playing if we are going to send kids to adult court.

" ... There is a real public safety concern here if you have somebody that not just once but twice robbing and then (killing) two different people. That's hard-core stuff."

Melissa Sickmund, a senior research associate with the National Center for Juvenile Justice in Pittsburgh, said almost every state in the nation has changed laws to make it easier to try more kids in adult court.

Harris, she noted, "doesn't come close to being the youngest in the country" to be charged as an adult with murder.

Nathaniel Abraham, 13, was found guilty of second-degree murder by a Michigan jury in November for the 1997 slaying of Ronnie Greene Jr. Abraham was 11 when he fatally shot Greene.

"He is certainly not a poster child for 'Oh, leave him back in juvenile court. He's just an innocent thing who made a mistake,'" she said. "He may be a kid who, at 14 or 15, we give up on. Lock him up, throw away the kid, we may have messed up but he is beyond all hope."

"If he goes to criminal court and gets a life sentence, that is literally what you have done," she said. "It seems really harsh for a child who is still in the midst of his development, which is sad because all the adults in his life have failed him."

Reporter Sharon Coolidge contributed. E-mail jedwards@enquirer.com