Man who killed at age 12 in trouble

Lionel Tate's mother refused counseling, housing and other offers of help.
PEMBROKE PARK, Fla. (AP) -- Lionel Tate, who was given a second chance after he beat and stomped a little girl to death when he was 12, was back behind bars Tuesday -- exactly as some juvenile-justice experts had warned.
Tate, now 18, was charged Tuesday with holding up a pizza delivery man at gunpoint at a friend's apartment.
"We had a real chance. The right thing would have been to get this young man some help," said Michael Brannon, a forensic psychologist appointed by a judge to examine Tate after the 1999 killing of 6-year-old Tiffany Eunick.
Tate made international headlines in 2001 -- and touched off a debate over Florida's practice of prosecuting juveniles as adults -- when he became the youngest person in modern U.S. history to be sentenced to life in prison.
Sentencing
The hulking, 160-pound boy had claimed at first that he killed Tiffany while imitating pro wrestling moves he had seen on television, then later said he accidentally hurt the girl when he jumped on her from a staircase.
His conviction and sentence were overturned on appeal in 2004 -- after he had served three years in prison -- and prosecutors gave him a plea bargain that placed him under house arrest for a year, followed by probation for 10 years.
Now, Tate again faces the possibility of a long stretch in prison, especially since a judge last October said he would have "zero tolerance" for probation violations after Tate was caught with a knife blocks from his home late at night.
One of Tate's supporters, the Rev. Dennis Grant, said Tate told his lawyers he was innocent and had been "set up" because of his notoriety.
"He has denied that he did what he's accused of," said Grant, who spoke with Tate's attorneys. "I think we need to just wait a little while."
Offers
Grant said he had offered to provide Tate with housing in a new neighborhood, counseling, church-based programs and other help, but his mother had refused.
Katherine Federle, director of the Justice for Children Project at Ohio State University, said that by the time Tate got out of prison, it may have been too late to save him.
"Juvenile court systems and adult court systems have become extremely punitive," Federle said. "One reason is that it's politically easy to do that. But once we set off down that path, I don't know if there was ever any chance to rescue Lionel."
Back in 1999, Brannon examined Tate just after his arrest and concluded that while the boy did not suffer from mental illness or retardation, he had "a high potential for violence" along with "uncontrolled feelings of anger, resentment and poor impulse control."
Convicted as an adult
Brannon, who works at the Institute for Behavioral Sciences and the Law in Fort Lauderdale, recommended that instead of being sent to prison, Tate be placed in a juvenile treatment center and get intensive counseling.
Instead, the boy was prosecuted and convicted as an adult on first-degree murder charges and received the mandatory life sentence prescribed under a new, tough-on-crime Florida law.
Tate, who had been living with his mother, a Florida Highway Patrol trooper, was jailed without bail for a court appearance today. No one answered the door at the apartment Tuesday.
Police said Tate called for a pizza delivery from the apartment of a 12-year-old friend, then pulled a gun on the delivery man and chased him, police said. The delivery man threw down the pizzas and fled, authorities said.
Tate was also charged with forcing his way into the friend's apartment and roughly shoving the boy aside.