Roger Borkum was a 64-year-old homeless man living on Jacksonville’s downtown streets. On Oct. 19 he was beaten, not once, not twice, but three separate times within an hour on the same night and died four days later.
Marcavion Juh’Maine Lacey, 19, has already been charged with second-degree murder and now the State Attorney’s Office has announced the indictment of 13-year-old Justin Curry on the same charge as an adult. He was 12 at the time of the attack. And on the same day Robert Rasheed Pope turned 17 on Nov. 21, he too was charged as an adult with second-degree murder.
“The juvenile justice system is neither designed nor equipped to handle offenders or offenses of this magnitude,” State Attorney Melissa Nelson said. “In Juvenile Court, the state must relinquish its authority to the Department of Juvenile Justice, where the available sanctions fall far short of those permitted in Circuit Court ― and far short of what is necessary for this crime. By handling this case in Circuit Court, we ensure that it receives the level of accountability, supervision, and judicial oversight that the facts and law demand.”…