Hearing to determine if Dallas teen rape suspect will be tried as juvenile or adult

A hearing will continue on Wednesday that will determine if a 16 year old rape and murder suspect will stand trial as an adult.

He was 15 when DNA linked him to a string of rapes in two states and a capital murder in Dallas.

Dallas homicide Det. Scott Sayers talked about the murder of Maria Ezquerro, 23, in the apartment she’d been in only two weeks.

“We knew there were signs of rape. We knew there was a struggle. There were signs of strangulation on her neck,” Sayers said.

Police were led to the boy’s apartment where he lived with his mother - who sat at the defense table with near her son - by the AT&T secure app Ezquerro’s father had to keep up with her.

“If we had not found that laptop, this case would be unsolved today,” Sayers said.

Other detectives detailed how he innocently asked for help and women responded by opening their doors. They saw guns to their face and were quickly fighting for their lives.

Each case had the same M.O. police say, his DNA connects him to every case. Two of the rapes guns were pointed at children. The women through detectives’ testimony says he threatened, “I will kill this two year old if you don’t give me sex.”

Probation officer Christopher Jefferson showed the court a shank made from a comb by the young man and an assault style rifle the teen fashioned out of the pages of a book

Asked by prosecutors If he believed the juvenile could be rehabilitated, Johnson said he didn’t believe son, at least not at this time.

A former foster mother of the suspect wept as she talked about his time in her home in 2013-2014.

Sometimes he’d have emotional episodes, she said, but called him a happy and loving ten year old who played the violin.

His mother testified she did what she could to help him and get him mental health help but she couldn’t afford the medicines he needed.

Evaluators say the boy told them he began watching porn at age 8 or 9 and watched TV programs like Criminal Minds and Law and Order.

The hearing on whether he will be tried as a juvenile or an adult continues Wednesday.