Mar 23, 2008 12:01 pm US/Eastern
Trial Date Set For Teen Accused Of Killing Family
TOWSON, Md. (WJZ) ―
A father, mother and two children were murdered in their Baltimore County home at the hands of another one of their own children.
Derek Valcourt reports Nicholas Browning is charged with the crimes, and a trial date has been set.
The judge has ordered the trial to start on July 28, but until then, there's a lot of work to be done in the case.
Nicholas waits for his trial on charges that he murdered his parents, John and Tammy Browning, along with his two younger brothers, 14-year-old Greg and 11-year-old Ben.
It happened Feb. 2 inside the family's Cockeysville home.
He's facing trial as an adult, but his defense attorneys asked the judge to transfer the case to juvenile court because the murders happened just days before Nicholas' 16th birthday.
"You can't get a criminal conviction in juvenile court. The most you can be is to be found to be delinquent, and what do we do with delinquent people? We try to rehabilitate them, and the most he could ever be physically detained is until age 21," said defense lawyer Byron Warnken.
Warnken points out that under Maryland law, 16 is the cut off age to request a transfer to juvenile court, but he says he doesn't think it will happen.
"I think there's going to be a lot of pressure on the judge to deny the defense's motion," said Warnken.
The judge issued a gag order for both sides of the case Thursday.
He also issued an order to have Nicholas undergo a psychiatric evaluation.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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