The obvious root cause of such an outrage was: poverty; rampant societal breakdown; media violence; junk food and poor nutrition; the erosion of family values; godlessness; the failure of organized religion to meet the needs of the underclass; the absence of moral training in school; truancy; insufficient government funding for social programs; too much government control over the lives of the citizenry.

One genius, a pundit funded by the Ford Foundation, attempted to connect the crime to the post-Christmas sale season— pernicious materialism had led to frustration had led to murder. “Acquisitional rage,” he called it. The same thing happens all the time in the favelas of Brazil.

“Shop till you drop it on someone,” Milo had remarked at the time. “What an asshole.” We hadn’t discussed the case much and I’d done most of the talking. He has solved hundreds of homicides but this one bothered him.

The media noise lasted awhile. Over at the Hall of Justice, the legal process kicked in, stealthy and gray. The boys were placed in the High Power ward at the county jail. With both of them too young to qualify for a 707 hearing to determine if they could be tried as adults, most experts felt the disposition would end up in Juvenile Court.

Citing the brutality of the crime, the District Attorney’s Office made a special request to kick the case up to Superior Court. Troy Turner and Randolph Duchay’s court appointed P.D.s filed papers in strong opposition. A couple more days of editorial columns were devoted to that matter. Then another lull, as briefs were written and a hearing judge was appointed.

Juvey judge Thomas A. Laskin III— a former D.A. with experience prosecuting gang members— had a rep as a hard case. Courtroom whispers said it was going to get interesting.

I got the call three weeks after the murder.

“Dr. Alex Delaware? Tom Laskin. We’ve never met but Judge Bonnaccio said you’re the man for the job.”

Peter Bonnaccio had been presiding judge of Superior Court, Family Division for a couple of years, and I’d testified before him. I hadn’t liked him much at first, thinking him hasty and superficial when making custody decisions. I’d been wrong. He talked fast, cracked jokes, was sometimes inappropriate. But plenty of thought went into his decisions and he was right more often than not.

I said, “What job is that, Judge?”