The 15-year-old South Miami-Dade student charged with a girl’s fatal shooting aboard a school bus can leave his house only for classes, church and to meet with lawyers, a judge said Wednesday.
Jordyn Howe, now charged as an adult with manslaughter with a deadly weapon, made his first appearance in circuit court.
“There will be no hanging out at the mall, no hanging out the friends’ houses,” Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Ellen Sue Venzer told the slender teen with a baby face.
Jordyn, who is out on bond, also was ordered to attend mental-health counseling.
Miami-Dade police say Jordyn was showing off his stepfather’s pistol to classmates about a school bus in Homestead just before Thanksgiving. The weapon accidentally discharged, fatally striking Lourdes Guzman-DeJesus in the neck as her 7-year-old sister looked on.
Lourdes, 13, attended Palm Glades Preparatory Academy. Jordyn has since returned to school at Somerset Academy Silver Palms.
Wednesday’s court hearing also marked the first time that Lourdes’ mother, Ady Guzman-DeJesus, saw the shooting suspect and his family in person. Visibly shaken, she began to bawl as the judge instructed Jordyn.
Adding to the pain: Lourdes’ father committed suicide after his daughter's death.
“This family has been torn apart,” her lawyer, Ron Book, told reporters after Wednesday’s court hearing.
The lawyer said that DeJesus recognized the boys’ stepfather as a man who had once employed her at a restaurant.
Book also said that the family is dismayed that Jordyn is allowed to go to classes at the same school that Lourdes’ little sister attends. He also questioned why the boy’s stepfather had not been charged for not properly securing the weapon, which Jordyn had taken to school “not once, not twice but on multiple occasions.”
Jordyn had been in juvenile custody, but prosecutors charged him as an adult last week. He is also charged with possession of a firearm by a minor and carrying a concealed weapon.
Teen accused of school-bus shooting restricted to school, church
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Teen accused of school-bus shooting restricted to school, church
