A Cook County Juvenile Court judge refused Tuesday to release a 12-year-old Homewood boy charged with threatening to kidnap and kill classmates.
Judge William Hibbler ordered that the youth remain held in a juvenile detention center on charges of solicitation to commit first-degree murder and solicitation to commit aggravated kidnapping.
Mike Welsh, the boy’s attorney, had asked Hibbler to let his client return home until the next hearing, scheduled for Tuesday.
“I don’t believe it would be prudent to release him,” Hibbler said.
The boy, dressed in black jeans and a black collarless shirt, did not speak during the hearing. His hands clasped tightly behind his back, the boy kept his gaze downward throughout the five-minute hearing.
Welsh declined to comment after the hearing.
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The kidnapping charges against the 7th grader stem from a two-page letter the boy allegedly sent to six friends asking for help to kidnap four classmates at Hart Junior High School in Homewood and kill one of them.
The letter discussed plans to build a two-story barricade in which to imprison the girls.
School officials found a copy of the letter and brought in police, and the boy was charged late last month.
The girls’ parents attended Tuesday’s hearing but did not comment. Some of the parents have said they want the 12-year-old to remain in custody.
The murder-related charge stems from another incident, but prosecutors will not comment on it, citing a judge’s decision to close the boy’s initial hearing in May.