MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – A 15-year-old boy accused of fatally shooting a rabbi in Northeast Miami-Dade last year made his first court appearance Thursday morning.
DeAndre Charles is being held without bond on charges of first-degree murder and armed robbery.
"We think technically he should be getting a bond. We don't think the state has proved anything other than filing a piece of paper," defense attorney Adam Goodman said.
According to prosecutors, officers were tipped off more than a year ago about two possible gunmen. A rough sketch was also drawn by a witness who lives in the area where Rabbi Joseph Raksin was killed.
Police said Raksin, 60, was targeted in an attempted robbery on Aug. 9, 2014, while walking to a synagogue.
"We want this thug to be prosecuted to the fullest extent the law allows," the rabbi's daughter, Shuli Labkowski Raksin, said.
Charles' family maintains that he was home at the time of the shooting. The teen is a freshman at Miami Norland Senior High School.
His family said their home was raided when authorities came to arrest Charles Wednesday morning.
"They already interrogated him twice and tried to pin it on him, and I don't believe it," his mother, Blair Charles, said.
"He had nothing to do with this at all," Charles' stepfather, Willis Archibald, said. "He was home at the time that this incident happened a year and a half ago. The whole family was home. We tried to tell them that and no one was listening."
Charles has a previous juvenile record that includes theft and resisting arrest without violence charges.
"It's very difficult on the family," Goodman said. "He is very young. They just want justice (and) they want the facts and evidence to come out."