Two young teenagers charged with killing a 65-year-old man in North Portland and then taking his car on a joyride could serve less than a decade behind bars if convicted as sweeping changes to Oregon’s criminal justice system go into effect next year.

Aaron Criswell, 16 and Richard Rand IV, 15, will be transferred from adult court and tried as juveniles beginning Jan. 1, when the state’s Measure 11 law stops automatically applying to young defendants suspected of serious crimes.

The two were indicted last month on first-degree murder charges in the death of Ricky Malone Sr., who police say was fatally shot at close range in the St. John’s neighborhood as he was collecting bottles and cans.

A third defendant accused in the killing, Eugene Woodruff, 14, is already in Juvenile Court because of his age and will likely stay there.

The high-profile cases will serve as a litmus test for the new law, which upends the way Oregon’s justice system has handled young people accused of crimes such as robbery, rape and murder for the last 25 years. It may also test the public’s appetite for the changes enacted by state lawmakers earlier this year.

Every person under 18 charged with a Measure 11 crime will now start in Juvenile Court. The new law allows prosecutors to argue to move suspects ages 15 to 17 to Circuit Court and treat them as adults, which Multnomah County plans to do with Criswell and Rand.

Whether prosecutors succeed will depend on the ruling of a Juvenile Court judge, who must determine a variety of factors when making the decision, including the defendants’ level of maturity and their likelihood of rehabilitation.

If moved back to adult court and found guilty of murder, Criswell and Rand could now face a presumptive life sentence in prison but have the chance to seek parole in 15 years, earlier than the current law.

If they stay in Juvenile Court and are convicted, the two would not be held in custody past their 25th birthdays and could be released any time before then.

“They took a life. Something none of us can get back again,” said Robert Malone, the victim’s older brother. “And there’s a possibility of them doing less than 10 years? It doesn’t make any sense.”

The law, known as Senate Bill 1008, eases the rules voters adopted in 1994’s Ballot Measure 11, which included mandatory sentences for convicted juveniles. It earned broad support from organizations and leaders in the criminal justice system, including dozens of retired Circuit Court and appellate judges.

Proponents pointed to improvements in brain science that show juveniles don’t have fully developed decision-making abilities. They also cited studies that found young offenders have little hope at rehabilitation when funneled into the adult prison system.

“We know that sometimes youth commit heinous crimes that cause deep harm,” said Jann Carson, interim executive director of the ACLU of Oregon, one of the legislation’s leading advocates. “We also know youth have an immense capacity for change.”

The new law will apply to any juvenile defendant facing Measure 11 charges throughout the state come January. Multnomah County District Attorney Rod Underhill said he anticipates his office will see about 25 active cases affected by the law.

Among those cases, Underhill said, are a number involving violent crimes, including rape, attempted murder and one other murder case — that of a 15-year-old charged with shooting an 18-year-old in a Motel 6 room last year.

None of them, however, have elicited the public outcry generated by the suspected killing involving Criswell, Rand and Woodruff, who police and residents say were part of a larger group of teens implicated in a rash of burglaries, beatings and property crimes that for months terrorized North Portland.

Police said Malone died from a shotgun blast to the chest after the three boys approached him along North Mohawk Avenue and demanded that he give them his car.

The suspects then spent the next several hours driving around in Malone’s blue Toyota Avalon and even stopped at a Taco Bell drive-thru for breakfast before ditching the car, according to police and prosecutors.

Prosecutors said Criswell and Woodruff knew Malone, a lifelong St. Johns resident who had attended Roosevelt High School in the 1970s and whose daughter dated Criswell’s brother.

Shortly before the killing, the teens had wandered around the neighborhood with a stolen 12-gauge shotgun and unsuccessfully tried to burglarize a nearby home on North Midway Avenue, according to police and prosecutors.

Police arrested the boys Oct. 24 at Woodruff’s home in the Portsmouth neighborhood, which borders St. Johns.

A grand jury indicted Criswell and Rand a week later on multiple criminal counts, including first-degree murder with a firearm, first-degree robbery with a firearm and unauthorized use of a vehicle with a firearm. Woodruff faces identical charges in Juvenile Court.

Underhill declined to comment on the case because it is pending, he said. North Portland residents remain rattled and outraged.

“Our community has been traumatized by the damage they’ve done,” said Laura Seeton, who has lived in the area the last five years.

After the new year, Criswell and Rand’s case will move to Juvenile Court. Prosecutors would then need to request a waiver hearing with a judge to try them as adults.

Before issuing a decision, the judge, under the new rules, must weigh the defendants’ maturity level and mental health, consider their prior criminal records and determine whether the alleged crime was “aggressive, violent, premeditated or willful in manner.”

Prosecutors during the hearing must also demonstrate a “preponderance of evidence” that keeping the case in Juvenile Court “will not serve the best interests of the youth and of society.”

Paige Clarkson, the district attorney for Marion County and president for the Oregon District Attorneys Association, said the combined list of factors, by design, creates a high hurdle for any prosecutor seeking to move a teen into adult court.

“It’s like a mini trial,” Clarkson said.

State Sen. Floyd Prozanski, D-Eugene, who championed the bill, said the process levels the playing field.

“I have faith in our system, faith in judges to make decisions that are best for our community,” he said. “I would expect this case, based on what I’ve seen, to be remanded to adult court.”

If that happens, Criswell and Rand would proceed through adult court like any other criminal case. The changes would come only if they were later convicted and sentenced.

The new law allows people under 18 convicted of murder as an adult to be eligible for a parole hearing 15 years into their prison sentence, down from 25 or 30 years. During such a hearing, the state parole board would now be required to weigh evidence that shows minors do not possess the same reasoning and impulse control that adults do.

Separately, the bill also gives juveniles convicted of Measure 11 crimes the opportunity for an early release hearing half-way through their sentences, regardless of the length. According to the bill, a judge at the so-called “second-look” hearing would consider allowing young offenders to serve the rest of their sentences under community-based supervision instead of prison.

But there is also the prospect that Criswell and Rand’s cases would remain in Juvenile Court. Under that system, those convicted of any crime, including murder, cannot be held in state custody past age 25.

Given their current ages, that would be 10 years or less. And they could potentially be out even earlier.

The Oregon Youth Authority, which is the physical custodian of convicted juveniles, oversees their rehabilitation. The agency is allowed to release them at any point after their conviction, though it requires a number of evaluations before doing so.

The prospect of an early release, however unlikely or unknown at this time, does not sit well with the Malone family.

“We thought we believed in the process,” Robert Malone said. “But this is deeply disturbing.”

-- Shane Dixon Kavanaugh; 503-294-7632

Email at skavanaugh@oregonian.com

Follow on Twitter @shanedkavanaugh

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