After being convicted as adult, teen faces 8 years

VIRGINIA BEACH

Hassan Nelson was five to 10 feet away last summer when two other boys threatened to shoot a girl with what looked like a silver handgun if she did not empty her pockets.

She testified that she couldn't tell it was a BB gun.

Nelson and the two other boys were arrested for the robbery at Red Wing Park. Their take: $7.

Nelson was 16 and in the eighth grade at Corporate Landing Middle School at the time. Prosecutors, faced with a flood of juvenile robberies, opted to charge the three as adults. The two other boys pleaded guilty to the robbery in Circuit Court and received three-year commitments to the juvenile justice system. Nelson, who said he did not do anything, took a gamble in fighting the charges and lost at trial.

Now, the 17-year-old, who said he eventually thought better and tried to stop the robbery from happening, faces far worse consequences.

That's because after the girl was robbed, there was a second case involving two victims - and so two gun charges. Nelson was convicted in that case and now faces a mandatory minimum sentence of eight years in adult prison.

Nelson is an example of the Commonwealth's Attorney's Office tough stance on prosecuting as adults children who commit serious crimes with guns. He was one of 38 minors whose cases were sent to Circuit Court last year. There, convictions go on permanent records and come with the possibility of lengthy prison sentences. That number is 11 more than four years ago.

"If you are going to go out and commit an adult crime with a gun, we are going to treat you like an adult," said Colin Stolle, chief deputy commonwealth's attorney.

Nelson hopes that the judge, William O'Brien, will give him a break at sentencing next month.

"Sometimes I wake up crying," Nelson said from the Virginia Beach Juvenile Detention Center. "I can't knock the prosecutor or the judge. It's not their fault, it's mine. At the same time, I don't deserve eight years."

Defense attorney Stephen Merrill has argued that Associate Commonwealth's Attorney Paul Powers abused his discretion by prosecuting Nelson as an adult. Merrill said he will also argue at the sentencing hearing that the mandated punishment for first and second gun offenses for a child is unconstitutional and excessive.

Merrill says Nelson knew that the BB gun one of his friends owned was broken and suggested using it only as a scare tactic. Merrill concedes that Nelson was responsible for the conspiracy, but not the robbery because he never came close to completing the plan.

"They made no consideration for his age," Merrill said of the prosecutors. "If he has to spend eight years under these circumstances, I don't know if he could come out with a positive approach to establishing a reasonable life."

Prosecutors would not comment about the case, but according to court papers, Powers wants the judge to impose the adult mandatory eight-year sentence. Powers will also argue that a BB gun, whether operable or not, is firearm under the law.

Compounding Nelson's problems at sentencing is the fact that, a week after his conviction, he pled guilty to another robbery. According to court records in that case, Nelson and another boy coaxed two teens to the woods behind Kmart on General Booth Boulevard with the promise of marijuana and alcohol. There, Nelson punched one of the boys in the face and stole his bicycle and cellular phone.

The other victim pedaled into a creek to escape.

In pleading guilty to that robbery, Nelson told his mother, "I have no chance, Mommy."

Nelson has spent more than a year in a juvenile facility considering how he would protect himself in prison. He says he regrets what happened and, according to his mother, does not quite understand what's going on.

"Why are they after me so bad?" he often asks his mother, Whitney Nelson, who recently moved to Syracuse, N.Y.

"He is a child," she said. "If he gets the mandatory sentence in an adult facility, he won't get an education. You are going to put him in a facility with real criminals that he knows nothing about."

Nelson's fate now lies with O'Brien, who has several options.

In most situations, a minor tried as an adult can be sentenced at least partly as a juvenile. Minors classified as a serious offender can serve a portion of their punishment in a juvenile facility until 21 and the remainder in an adult facility, according to the Campaign for Youth Justice in Washington.

O'Brien is scheduled to impose his sentence on Aug. 25.

Duane Bourne, (757) 222-5150, duane.bourne@pilotonline.com