Suspect in bus hijacking to be tried as an adult

Fifteen-year-old Blodgett going to adult jail

Freddie Blodgett, the 15-year-old accused of hijacking a Nye County school bus April 29, will be tried as an adult, Fifth District Judge Robert Lane decided Monday.

Blodgett had been held in the Douglas County Juvenile Detention Center since his arrest. He will now be transferred to adult jail. Blodgett wiped his eyes with a tissue after the decision was announced.

Blodgett is facing charges of grand larceny of a motor vehicle, assault with a deadly weapon and robbery with a deadly weapon.

Psychologist Dr. Jack Araza found him mentally competent to stand trial, court testimony revealed. Public defender Harry Gensler said he was going to ask for a postponement of the hearing to hold an evidentiary hearing until he saw Chief Juvenile Probation Officer Tom Metscher's report which recommended Blodgett be tried as a juvenile.

But Lane said he was bothered by the fact Metscher couldn't guarantee Blodgett would be in custody under the juvenile system until he's 21. Metscher testified juvenile offenders don't serve a definite term, they go into a program. The average length of stay for an offender in juvenile custody is nine months, he said.

"I have to err on the side of the safety of the community," Lane said. He expressed concern Blodgett could get out in six or nine months and shoot up the school.

While Lane described it as an impulsive act, Nye County District Attorney Bob Beckett outlined the circumstances of the premeditated offense -- the sharpening of the samurai sword used in the hijacking, obtaining blueprints to Pahrump Valley High School and discussing a plot to ram a truck into propane tanks at the high school with a friend the previous Friday. Gensler countered that Blodgett's plan certainly wasn't to drive a school bus into the California desert.

"Everything in this report, indicates this young man, this boy, should not be certified," Gensler said.

Lane said whether a youth should be certified as an adult depends on the seriousness of the offense, the youth's past record and personal attributes of the offender.

"Let's give the juvenile system a chance. The person who's most knowledgeable is Mr. Metscher who prepared this report," Gensler urged the judge.

But Beckett said the district attorney's office is also looking at the big picture. "The big picture is a message of deterrence."

The system needs to discourage someone from hijacking a school bus, ramming police cars and threatening to blow up the school, he said.

The bus hijacking was foiled when authorities put down tire spikes that diverted the school bus into the desert where it overturned.

"It's a miracle there wasn't a head on (collision)," Beckett said. "It's a series of serious acts, not just one compulsive, immature act."

In the end, Lane said Blodgett's raising a samurai sword over the school bus driver's head was as serious as someone robbing a store with a gun.

"This whole ordeal has been very difficult for everyone to deal with," Metscher said. "The juvenile system still has some of the resources to treat the issues this young man has, to try to make him accountable and removing him from the community."

Metscher said it would've been easier to support certifying Blodgett as an adult if he were older or a sociopath. While Beckett argued trying Blodgett as an adult would give local authorities more control over his length of incarceration, Gensler said adult courts routinely sentence defendants to prison in which they're turned over to the state of Nevada.


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