SANTA CRUZ, Calif. (KRON) — For the primary time since he murdered 8-year-old Madyson “Maddy” Middleton in Santa Cruz a decade in the past, Adrian “AJ” Gonzalez took the stand this week and testified in entrance of a jury.
The convicted killer recalled in horrifying element about why, on the age of 15, he determined to rape and kill his younger neighbor of their condo advanced on the Tannery Arts Heart. Gonzalez testified slowly as he gave fastidiously worded, matter-of-fact solutions to jurors.
Santa Cruz County jurors will resolve whether or not the 25-year-old man will likely be granted freedom. He has remained in custody ever since his arrest in 2015. As a result of he was convicted as a juvenile in California, he’s eligible to be launched. Prosecutors try to show at trial that he’s too harmful.
On Thursday afternoon, his protection lawyer requested Gonzalez to clarify what occurred on July 26, 2015, when Maddy was final seen alive within the Tannery’s courtyard. Gonzalez mentioned his mom introduced residence groceries, together with ice cream, earlier than she left their condo to go to work.
Madyson “Maddy” Middleton
Gonzalez mentioned his plan was to seek out Maddy within the courtyard, inform her he had ice cream, and persuade her to comply with him again to his mom’s empty upstairs condo.
Protection lawyer Charlie Stevens requested, “When did you get the idea?” Gonzalez answered, “That day.”
Stevens requested, “You were intending to lure her back up?” Gonzalez answered, “I would not use the word ‘lure.’ My goal was … having sex with her.”
Stevens requested, “Did you think she was going to agree?” Gonzalez answered, “No. She was eight years old. I was 15. I was more than twice her size.”
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Stevens requested, “What happened when you got inside your apartment?”
Gonzalez mentioned, “She was serving herself (ice cream) on the kitchen counter. I had the duct tape in my hand. I grabbed her, picked her up, put duct tape on her mouth. She was screaming, resisting. She was kicking her legs, trying to get up, and trying to fight back. I had my hand on her mouth and neck to choke her. I’m testifying to my memory as I sit here today.”
After the sexual assault, “I decided to kill Madyson because I wanted to hide what I had done to her,” Gonzalez advised jurors.
The protection lawyer requested, “So, you thought that raping her would be worse than killing her?”
Gonzalez answered, “I wasn’t thinking about what was worse, or what was better. A lot of it wasn’t thinking, it was just reacting. I put her in the garbage that we had in the apartment to hide her body. I grabbed a knife in the kitchen to stab her in the neck. I knew that she was a person and she was suffering. I knew the decision I made … was because of my own self interest.”
Adrian “AJ” Gonzalez (File Picture By Michael Macor/The San Francisco Chronicle by way of Getty Photographs)
He turned on a CD participant and performed music till the woman died. “How did you feel?” Stevens requested. Gonzalez answered, “I can’t remember any specific feeling or emotion.”
Gonzalez mentioned he cleaned up the condo earlier than he walked to his good friend’s condo on the Tannery and gave him a birthday current. “I went over to his apartment with a birthday gift. I was talking with him. And then we went out to Chipotle,” he testified.
Stevens requested, “You casually walked over to your friend’s apartment?”
“Yeah,” Gonzalez answered.
Maddy’s members of the family and Santa Cruz County District Legal professional Jeffrey Rosell listened in silence from the courtroom gallery.
Gonzalez has been on the stand for 2 days. On Wednesday, most of his testimony centered on his uncared for childhood, in addition to his teenage years when he combating melancholy, rejection, and suicidal ideas.
In eighth grade, he spent many nights alone in his mom’s condo whereas she stayed at her boyfriend’s home. “I’d stay at the Tannery by myself without a lot of supervision. As a teenager, it felt good to not have a parent around … freedom to do whatever I wanted,” Gonzalez testified.
He attended Shoreline Center College and Santa Cruz Excessive College. Gonzalez mentioned he had associates in school and on the Tannery. He loved enjoying the piano in SCHS’s jazz band, his ceramics class, going to yo-yo competitions, and using his skateboard.
Gonzalez testified, “There were girls in class that I did have a crush on. I shared my feelings with them. They didn’t feel the same way.” When he was rejected by ladies, “it felt like a big deal,” he mentioned.
The protection lawyer requested, “When did you first have suicidal thoughts?”
Gonzalez answered, “In eighth grade. It got worse by the time I got to Santa Cruz High.”
Gonzalez mentioned he started feeling much less depressed after he was arrested for homicide and acquired remedy classes in juvenile corridor. Throughout his years in custody, he earned a highschool diploma from the Santa Cruz County Workplace of Training. In Sonoma County’s juvenile corridor, he accomplished sufficient college-level programs to be admitted into San Francisco State College. At a 2024 listening to, attorneys mentioned if Gonzalez was free of custody, he deliberate to reside in San Francisco and attend courses on campus at SFSU.
Superior Court docket Decide Denine Man is presiding over the trial. Gonzalez’s testimony will resume Friday morning.
