Judge will weigh KC teen's troubled childhood in Irish chef's killing
A 15-year-old charged with murder in the fatal shooting of well-known Kansas City chef Shaun Brady last year had a troubled childhood marked by violence, family strife and a cancer diagnosis, a psychologist who assessed the youth testified in court Tuesday.
The testimony came as part of a two-day certification hearing used to determine whether the youth — who has been identified in court by his initials, K.H. — will face prosecution as an adult for Brady's death in August.
Jackson County Family Court Administrative Judge Jennifer Phillips heard cases made by both K.H.'s attorney and the Office of the Juvenile Officer and will rule on whether the case will be transferred out of family court, where juvenile cases are prosecuted. Phillips said she would issue a decision ahead of a May 14 hearing she set for K.H.
In closing arguments at the end of Tuesday's proceedings, Kirby Crick, K.H.'s attorney, told Phillips the youth had been failed throughout his life and asked that she not certify him for prosecution as an adult.
'He never experienced a life without trauma, even in utero,' she said.
Asking for the case to be prosecuted in the general court system, Dan Barry, representing the Office of the Juvenile Officer, described the shooting as 'vicious' and said the incident took from Brady's loved ones a 'family man.'
'It is the most serious offense that can be committed,' he said.
Brady, 44, was fatally shot Aug. 28 during a confrontation with a group while he was taking out the trash at Brady & Fox, the Irish restaurant he co-owned in Kansas City's Brookside neighborhood.
K.H. and another teen were arrested shortly after the shooting. In December, charges were dropped against the other youth, who has been identified as L.M, and he was released after he spent three months in juvenile custody. At the time, an attorney for that youth said officials had rushed to hold someone accountable for the shooting and had mistakenly charged L.M.
During the hearing Tuesday, Alexis Humenik, a psychologist hired by the defense to interview and assess K.H., testified that he was exposed to cocaine, marijuana and alcohol his mother used during her pregnancy and that he was later abused by his father. K.H. reported hearing 'whispers' and 'seeing shadows' and has a family history of schizophrenia, she said.
At one point, he lived in a U-Haul truck for one to two months, she said. Violence and neighborhood shootings were common in the boy's life, she said.
'That became K.H.'s reality, that he was surrounded by this violence,' Humenik said.
Around the age of 10, he began to carry a gun as he sold drugs to make money to provide food and clothing for his siblings, she said.
K.H. went through stints of chemotherapy treatment, going back to age 4, after he was diagnosed with Langerhans cell histiocytosis, a rare condition that can cause lesions. Children diagnosed with the condition are more likely to have impulsive behavior, and chemotherapy can stunt brain development, Humenik said.
She said she had diagnosed K.H. with post-traumatic stress disorder for the childhood traumas he endured. She recommended he receive a medical evaluation to rule out a cancer relapse and that he receive treatment for his childhood trauma.
State law lays out factors for a judge to consider when reviewing whether to send a juvenile case to general jurisdiction court, including the seriousness of the alleged offense, whether it involved viciousness and violence, whether it was part of a pattern of offenses, and the youth's age and history.
Previous reporting from The Star's Eric Adler and Ilana Arougheti was used in this story.
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