CERTIFICATION HEARING FOR TEEN DELAYED

A decision on whether to try 16-year-old Joshua Wolf for murder as an adult has been put off, juvenile court officials said.

A certification hearing for Wolf, which was scheduled to have been held Tuesday, will be held before Bollinger County Judge Scott Thomsen rather than Cape Girardeau County Judge Peter Statler. A new date has not been set.

Wolf would face charges of first-degree murder, second-degree arson and armed criminal action if certified as an adult. He has been held in Cape Girardeau County's juvenile detention center since Carolyn Lindley's body was found by firefighters responding to a house fire May 8. Lindley was Wolf's grandmother.

Although Wolf's attorney, Jeffrey Dix, would not comment on Wolf's case, he said any certification hearing involving a youth from another state takes more time.

"When you have a case where someone has led an exemplary life, it's going to take more time to figure out what happened," Dix said.

Friends and relatives of Wolf, who moved here last month from Columbus, Ohio, have described him as an personable, intelligent boy who was spoiled.

"If a child is not from an area, the most viable defense would be found in his hometown," Dix said.

The time needed to travel from one state to another to provide an adequate defense for a client demands more time, the attorney said.

In order to certify a juvenile, he has to have committed a felony crime. Missouri's juvenile code says this includes first- and second-degree murder, first-degree assault, forcible rape or sodomy, first-degree robbery or distribution of drugs.

A judge bases his decision to certify a juvenile on 10 criteria, including age, level of maturity and criminal history.

A juvenile's social summaries, describing his upbringing, can make the difference whether he is tried as an adult, which underscores the importance of taking time to develop a defense, Dix said.

"It is one of the most important criteria in not certifying," he said.

But even if a juvenile is certified, it does not imply any greater guilt in comparison with a youth who remains in juvenile court, he said.

"Certification simply says that it is a serious crime," Dix said.