Left attempts to paint another teen criminal with the well-known Travon Martin "picture of innocence" tactic

5/27/2014

Bad Decision or Dangerous Criminal? Judge Sentences 16-Year-Old to 15 Years for Home Invasion

A Utah 16-year-old said he was just trying to fit in when he joined a group of older teens to rob a house at gunpoint. Now, he is facing up to 15 years in jail.

Cooper Van Huizen had never been in trouble with law before, when under the influence of pot, he decided that it was a good idea to join in on the other boys’ scheme.

“As I look back on what I did, I recognize that I was reckless in trying to fit in with and please new people I did not really know,” Van Huizen wrote in a court document. “My judgment was impaired by my use of marijuana.”

There is also little doubt that what Cooper and the other boys – three of them were legally adults at age 18 – did on Nov. 19 was reckless and dangerous.

Waving Cooper’s father’s guns, they held a couple at gunpoint in their home to steal a cell phone, a wallet and a bag of pot. While the victims were uninjured, they said they feared for their lives from the gang of boys.

Yet, Cooper’s dad Marc said that even though his son’s case was bumped up to adult court, he believed his son would only be in jail for 180 days under an agreed upon plea deal, the same sentence that the judge ordered for another teen involved in the same crime.

When the sentencing judge saw the proposed plea agreement earlier this month, though, he tossed it and sentenced Cooper to up to 15 years in an adult prison, with a minimum term of one year.

“We were completely shocked,” father Marc Van Huizen told the local news. “We were amazed… Had I known what I know now, I would not have allowed my son to accept that plea deal. I’m the one who told him to do it. [I thought] we had the ability to put this all behind him.”

Now the teen, who his father said was never even grounded before, is locked up 23 hours a day alone in a cell and is yet to be able to see his parents.

“The mistake that he made – the first ever he’s made in his life – was a big one,” Cooper’s dad said, vowing to fight to get his teen, who he said does not desire to pay so harshly, out of jail.

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