MOUNT VERNON — A hearing was held Tuesday in Skagit County Superior Court to determine whether racial bias led to the decision to move a 15-year-old’s murder trial from juvenile court to adult court.
The hearing was required after a state appeals court ruled that in moving Cristian Quijas’ case to the adult court system, Skagit County did not properly address the defense’s claim of racial bias.
Quijas was sentenced to 15 years of detention in 2018 after he was found guilty in the March 30, 2017 shooting death of 16-year-old Angel Estrada.
According to a declaration affidavit, if Quijas’ case had not been moved to the adult court system, he would have faced a juvenile court sentence that ran up until he was 21, or about six years.
Quijas was 15 years old at the time of the shooting. He is now 20.
Prosecutors called the ruling from the state appeals court, “an interesting amalgam.”
Prosecutors said the decision to move Quijas to adult court was not tainted by racial bias. Their arguement is that the second-degree murder charge alone was enough to move Quijas into the adult system.
The prosecutor pointed out, while noting that the Estrada family was sitting behind them, that Quijas killed another Hispanic child.
A statistical analysis conducted by Heather Evans of the University of Washington for Quijas’ defense team found that Latino teens are moved to adult court at six times the rate of white teens.
Prosecutors said just because there’s an overrepresentation of youth of color in such moves, it doesn’t mean racial bias is present.
“Just because the defendant is … Latino, does not mean this process was tainted by racial bias,” Skagit County prosecutor Trisha P. Johnson said. “The court held a rigorous declination hearing.”
Prosecutors pointed to gang activity as an explanation for the statistical disproportionality, and said the defense’s study ignored the issue of gang activity.
“This declination was not tainted by racial bias, despite the fact that Quijas is a latino and the victim was also Hispanic,” Johnson said. “Gangs are the factor here.”
Prosecutors said Quijas has continued to demonstrate ongoing gang-driven activity, citing fights with other inmates, threats of violence to staff and convictions for inciting prison riots.
Quijas’ defense said Quijas has had no violent infractions in the past two years, has completed his GED and has begun taking college classes.
Prosecutors said the decision to charge Quijas as an adult was due to the severity of the charge.
Quijas’ defense team said the state Court of Appeals did not tell the court to look only at whether racial bias impacted the decision to move Quijas’ case. The error that was found was that the court omitted any evidence in regard to Quijas’ claim of racial bias in the hearing where the decision was made.
Quijas’ defense said the question at hand is not to find overt racism in Quijas’ life or case. Rather, the defense alleges there is inherent and overt racism within the court system and specifically within hearings involving decisions regarding latino youth.
Quijas’ defense called the prosecutorial team’s assertion that the overrepresentation of Latino youth in adult court is tied to gang activity, a “shocking statement,” and said there was no evidence in Evan’s study to support such a claim.
The defense called the claim disparaging to the Latino population and community and a “huge oversimplification.”
“I do not believe that the court needs to make a finding that there was overt racism in Mr. Quijas’ case to make a ruling that racial bias did impact the discretionary decline hearing, and to find that the jurisdiction should not have been declined in Quijas’ case and he should’ve been retained appropriately in juvenile court,” said Jeri Lynn Chavez, Quijas’ defense attorney.
Judge Brian Stiles plans to issue a ruling regarding the Quijas case on Nov. 21.
