Killer at 16, and Still in California’s Juvenile Justice System Decades Later

SANTA CRUZ, Calif. — Except for one detail and one horrifying crime, Donald Schmidt is a run-of-the-mill juvenile offender. He watches television, does chores, talks to his lawyer and waits for his release. Donald Schmidt, 37, molested and drowned a 3-year-old girl. The detail is his age: Mr. Schmidt is 37, the oldest defendant ever in California’s juvenile justice system. Just 16 when he molested and drowned a 3-year-old girl while high on methamphetamine, he has been in juvenile facilities for two decades, sometimes alongside teenagers who were not yet born when he was convicted. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/26/us/26juvenile.html?_r=1