Gabrielle Gillette, Santa Cruz Sentinel
SANTA CRUZ — Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill making several changes to the detention extension hearing process last week, inspired by the 2015 rape and murder of 8-year-old Madyson “Maddy” Middleton in Santa Cruz.
Assemblymember Gail Pellerin introduced Assembly Bill 1902 in February as a response to the three-monthlong detention extension hearing in November 2024 of Adrian Gonzalez, Middleton’s neighbor at the Tannery Arts Center apartment complex, who was convicted of rape and murder in the case. Gonzalez, now 26, was 15 when he committed the crime.
After his arrest in 2015, Gonzalez was tried as a juvenile, as a state law prohibits people under the age of 16 from being prosecuted as adults.
Gonzalez’s case was ultimately adjudicated in juvenile court in 2021, when he was 21 years old, and sent to a Secure Youth Treatment Facility in Sonoma County, according to a media release from Pellerin’s office.
He was slated to be released in October 2024, after his 25th birthday, but the Santa Cruz District Attorney’s Office petitioned to have his detention time extended, concerned that Gonzalez could be a danger to society if released.
What followed was a first-of-its-kind, three-monthlong trial that marked the first time any county in California underwent a Welfare and Institutions Code §876 extension detention hearing and resulted in a ruling that Gonzales should not be released.
Pellerin said she was moved after hearing from jurors on the case, the Santa Cruz District Attorney’s Office and Middleton’s family members to fill “gaps in law she learned about over the last year studying the case of Adrian Gonzalez.”
An extension detention hearing, the process which led to Gonzalez’s 2024 trial, can be proposed by county probation officials when an inmate is nearing the end of their initial detention but is still believed to be a danger to the community.
AB 1902 clarifies jurisdictional authority, allows either party to petition for a continuation and ensure applicability of California’s mutual discovery obligations. The law also increases the maximum detention time from two years to up to three years, requiring courts to consider the evidence presented at trial and a clinical assessment when deciding on extended detention.
“AB 1902 makes significant changes to the extension detention process,” Pellerin said. “Changes centered around critical procedural and legal clarification, and centered around honoring victims. I authored this bill because of the impact Maddy’s case had on our community. Working on this bill over the last year highlighted that long after the headlines are gone, the pain surrounding the most unimaginable loss remains. I am thankful to Governor Newsom for acknowledging the balance this bill takes.”
However, Pellerin previously told the Sentinel that the bill is not intended for every youth case, but for unique cases in which a person has committed a “crime that is so heinous and so disturbing,” and shows no signs of remorse or rehabilitation.
Local support for AB 1902 came from Santa Cruz District Attorney Jeff Rosell, who sponsored the bill, the Santa Cruz Police Department, Walnut Avenue Family and Women’s Center, Santa Cruz County Supervisor Kim DeSerpa and the Scotts Valley Police Department. Statewide, the California Peace Officers’ Association, the California District Attorneys Association and the California Police Chiefs Association also supported the bill.
Laura Jordan, Middleton’s mother, said the bill gives grieving families like hers room to breathe between hearings.
“For over a decade, I have lived through hearing after hearing, forced to relive the worst details of my daughter’s death in court every two years,” Jordan said. “For families like mine, AB 1902 is the difference between constantly bracing for the next hearing and finally having room to breathe. … Newsom’s signature won’t undo what happened to Madyson, but it will spare other families some of what mine has endured.”
AB 1902 goes into effect Jan. 1, 2027.
