Two adolescents can be tried as adults in slaying, court rules

The state Court of Appeals yesterday declined to intervene in the prosecution of two Grant County adolescents, making it likely they will be the youngest murder defendants to be tried as adults in recent state history.

In a brief, two-page ruling, appeals Commissioner Joyce McCown found that a Grant County judge had not made significant errors in sending Jake Lee Eakin and Evan Drake Savoie to be tried as adults. Both were 12 years old at the time of their arrest in the February 2003 slaying of playmate Craig Sorger. They have been in juvenile detention for nearly 17 months while awaiting trial.

Jake Lee Eakin is a suspect in the killing of his friend. Grant County Superior Court Judge John Antosz's 42-page order applied the appropriate case law to the facts and was too thorough to be considered an "abuse of discretion," McCown wrote.

Washington state law gives judges broad discretion in determining if juveniles should be tried as adults. In his ruling, Antosz said the killing was too vicious — involving 34 stab wounds or cuts and more than a dozen blows from a tree branch — to merit prosecution in juvenile court. Antosz also found that there were no juvenile-treatment programs that could assure public safety.

The prosecution has been controversial because of Eakin's and Savoie's ages and their lack of any history of arrest, mental illness or significant school misconduct. Psychologists hired by the defense and prosecution recommended they be tried as juveniles, as did Grant County juvenile-court counselors.

Alan White, Eakin's attorney, said McCown's ruling may be appealed further, potentially to the Supreme Court. Evan Savoie is also a suspect in the 2003 killing.

"Based on their age and being normal children, there wasn't any reason to treat them as adults," he said.

County Deputy Prosecutor Ed Owens said the ruling cleared the way for a trial in September.

"I've got to go to work," he said. "We've got a lot of preparation now."

Eakin and Savoie are believed to be the youngest murder defendants since Herbert Niccolls was convicted of killing the Asotin County sheriff in 1931. If convicted, they would face at least 20 years in prison.