Madyson Middleton was an 8-year-old girl from
Santa Cruz, California whose mother reported her missing from their apartment on July 25, 2015. Middleton had been lured into another apartment where she was strangled to death and disposed of in a dumpster. The suspect was charged two days later and was identified as 15-year-old Adrian Gonzalez after Middleton's body was found.
Suspect
The suspect, who was identified as Adrian Gonzalez was 15 years old at the time and lived in the same apartment complex, was charged with Middleton's murder. He confessed to duct-taping her mouth shut and sexually assaulting her before stabbing and strangling her to death. Gonzalez then dumped her body and watched the case closely, even asking random police officers questions about the crime. He also had a unique obsession with
yo-yos and writing "suicidal" posts on
Instagram
Instagram is a photo and video sharing social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. The app allows users to upload media that can be edited with filters and organized by hashtags and geographical tagging. Posts can ...
.
Trial
Adrian Gonzalez pleaded not guilty as trial began in November 2017 as there were some controversies about prosecuting Gonzalez as an adult because he was only 15 when he committed the murder.
2016 California Proposition 57
Proposition 57 was an initiated California ballot propositionapprovedon the November 8, 2016 ballot. The Proposition allows parole consideration for nonviolent felons, changes policies on juvenile prosecution, and authorizes sentence credits for ...
law was passed in 2016 where the judge can decide if the accused can be prosecuted as an adult.
In April 2021, Gonzalez was sentenced to juvenile prison where he will be incarcerated until he turns 25 in 2024.
See also
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List of kidnappings
The following is a list of kidnappings summarizing the events of each individual case, including instances of celebrity abductions, claimed hoaxes, suspected kidnappings, extradition abductions, and mass kidnappings.
Before 1900
1900–1949
...
*
List of solved missing person cases
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Middleton, Madyson
2015 murders in the United States
Deaths by person in California
Deaths by strangulation in the United States
Female murder victims
Formerly missing people
Incidents of violence against girls
Murder in California
Child murder in the United States
Sexual assaults in the United States