Juvenile (Season 4, Episode 9)
Premise: A cancer patient who grew marijuana is raped and murdered, and two middle-school boys each blame the other, leaving prosecutors to decide whether to try the older one as an adult.
- Air date
- Season/Episode
- Season 4, Episode 9
- Starring
- Det. Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay), Det. Elliot Stabler (Christopher Meloni), Det. John Munch (Richard Belzer), Det. Odafin “Fin” Tutuola (Ice-T), Capt. Donald Cragen (Dann Florek), ADA Alexandra Cabot (Stephanie March), Dr. George Huang (BD Wong), Bureau Chief Elizabeth Donnelly (Judith Light), ME Dr. Melinda Warner (Tamara Tunie)
- Guest stars
- Shane Lyons as Jeremy Brice, Connor Paolo as Zachary Connor, Illeana Douglas as Gina Bernardo, Becky Ann Baker as Mrs. Brice, Jonathan Walker as Dr. Hayman
- Director
- Constantine Makris
- Writers
- Tara Butters & Michele Fazekas
Summary
“Juvenile” opens with narcotics officers raiding an Avenue C apartment on an anonymous tip and finding more than 200 marijuana plants and the tenant, 34-year-old Susan Oestreicher, raped and stabbed dozens of times after a blow to the head. The tip came from her neighbor, Mary Ellen Lesinski. The ME finds no sperm at all in the attacker’s sample and learns Oestreicher had advanced ovarian cancer and was on chemotherapy; the plants supplied a medical marijuana club. A member, Cindy Kerber, points to Vincent Paglione, the ex-convict husband of a member who died of cancer, but his alibi holds.
Warner then reports that vomit at the scene contains the lunch served that day in Manhattan middle schools, and Huang profiles a juvenile killer. Lesinski’s son, Marc, has an MP3 player from his friend Jeremy Brice, 14, who is picked up with blood on his coat and whose prints are in the apartment. Jeremy denies everything, but his blood type rules him out as the rapist. A locker search turns up the victim’s wallet and the murder weapon in the locker of 12-year-old sixth grader Zachary Connor. Questioned apart, each boy blames the other. Jeremy says Zachary knocked the woman out with a phone, sent him for a knife, then raped and stabbed her while Jeremy threw up and then covered her with a blanket.
Because of his age, Zachary goes to Family Court, where the most he faces is 18 months. Cabot and Huang believe Jeremy, but the DA wants him tried as an adult for felony murder and burglary. When Cabot refuses, Bureau Chief Elizabeth Donnelly takes the case with Cabot as second chair. Public defender Gina Bernardo offers an insanity defense based on studies of the adolescent brain, and the judge lets jurors hear them. On the stand, researcher Dr. Hayman concedes the science proves little, and Donnelly questions Jeremy until he breaks down in apologies.
After Family Court rules on Zachary, Donnelly has Cabot call him as a rebuttal witness. He first blames Jeremy, then boasts that he was never afraid and says the woman brought it on herself by refusing to tell him where her money was.
Spoiler, the ending: The prosecution offers Jeremy five to 10 years. Bernardo urges him to take it, but his mother refuses, and the jury finds Jeremy guilty of second-degree murder and first-degree burglary.
Why it stands out
- Illeana Douglas makes her first appearance as public defender Gina Bernardo, a role she plays again in the next episode.
- Judith Light returns as Bureau Chief Elizabeth Donnelly, a recurring role she began late in the third season.