The 25-year-old man who, at age 15, brutally strangled, stabbed, and sexually assaulted an eight-year-old girl who was his neighbor, just took the stand for the first time in a trial to determine if he will stay behind bars.
Adrian "AJ" Gonzalez has told his story many times to investigators, therapists, and court appointed psychiatrists, but he has never spoken publicly about the day in 2015 when he kidnapped, strangled, and raped his eight-year-old neighbor, Madyson "Maddy" Middleton. But on Thursday, he testified in front of a jury about his crime, as a trial winds down which is not deciding his guilt or innocence, but is deciding whether he remains a danger to the public.
Under California law for juvenile offenders, Gonzalez — who pleaded guilty to the killing of Middleton in 2021 without ever going to trial — was set to be released last year when he turned 25. A judge ruled that he should face a jury first, and his trial has been ongoing since late November.
We heard earlier this week about testimony from a forensic psychologist who evaluated Gonzalez, and who was called as a witness for the defense. Dr. Roger Karlsson, a professor at Stanford, gave Gonzalez a standard test to measure psychopathy, which resulted in a score of 17 — higher than a non-psychotic, average person, but 13 points below the threshold for psychopathy.
Under cross-examination by the prosecution, Karlsson admitted he was not aware of any juvenile murder case as extreme as Gonzalez's, and admitted that he only met with Gonzalez for a few hours.
As KRON4 reports, on the stand on Thursday, Gonzales "gave carefully worded, matter-of-fact answers" to questions from his defense attorney, Charlie Stevens. When asked when he first got the idea to kidnap and assault Middleton, he responded, "That day."
When asked if he intended to lure Middleton up to his and his mother's empty apartment, he replied, "I would not use the word 'lure.' My goal was … having sex with her."
Gonzalez described being a lonely, sexually frustrated teen, who attended Santa Cruz High School. "There were girls in class that I did have a crush on," he said on the stand, per KRON4. "I shared my feelings with them. They didn’t feel the same way." He added that when he was rejected by these girls, "It felt like a big deal."
Gonzalez had previously told investigators that he planned to take his own life, and the gruesome, haphazard way he disposed of Middleton's body — in a recycling bin at the apartment complex where they lived — reflected the fact that he believed he would be dead before he faced any consequences.
But other parts of his testimony likely disturbed jurors. And if he had suicidal ideations and had been planning to take his own life for years, how did he so spontaneously come up with this plan to kidnap and kill Middleton?
He also described strangling her and putting a CD on to drown out noises she was making. When Stevens asked how he felt during the commitment of the crime, Gonzalez replied, "I can’t remember any specific feeling or emotion."
As KRON4 further reports from the courtroom, Gonzalez admitted to coldly and calmly going about his day after disposing of Middleton's corpse.
It was the birthday of a friend of his who also lived in the apartment complex. "I went over to his apartment with a birthday gift," Gonzalez said. "I was talking with him. And then we went out to Chipotle."
Gonzalez was expected to resume testimony Friday morning, and is likely going to face a tough cross-examination by prosecutors.
