Abraham; Nathaniel Abraham, then 12, testifies in 1998. While Abraham was tried as an adult, he was sentenced as a minor.Rehabilitated or not, young killer will go free
Abraham's experience in juvenile system could affect the way judges sentence young offenders.
• May 4, 1995: At 9, Nathaniel Abraham begins series of 22 run-ins with police over larcenies, burglaries and assaults.
• Oct. 29, 1997: Abraham, 11, kills Ronnie Greene Jr. by shooting him in the head from 200 feet away.
• Nov. 16, 1999: Abraham, tried as an adult, is convicted of second-degree murder.
• Jan. 19, 2007: Abraham is scheduled to be released from juvenile detention after he turns 21.
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The voice has deepened and shoulders have filled out. He recently received his high school diploma and sometimes leaves the juvenile detention facility that virtually raised him.
Nathaniel Abraham no longer is the wisp of an 11-year-old who coldly shot a Pontiac stranger in the head, becoming one of the youngest murderers in U.S. history.
Charged as an adult but sentenced as a youth, he is, at 19, all grown up. But has he changed? He has come far emotionally and intellectually, writing poetry and tutoring other residents, say counselors at W.J. Maxey Training School. But he continues to fight with guards and won't admit when he is wrong.
Rehabilitated or not, he will be released from the juvenile detention facility in 17 months, and his subsequent success or failure could affect the juvenile justice system by influencing the sentencing of other violent youths, observers said.
Abraham was Exhibit A in the need to get tough with juvenile criminals by trying them as adults. But the mood has swung the other way, with legal advocates counseling leniency and rehabilitation.
"If he's successful after he gets out, I think people can come back -- whether it's the media or court system -- and say that the system works," said Dan Bagdade, his defense attorney.
If a decade of detention can't straighten out Abraham, some judges may wonder whether there's any point to it and be less inclined to send young felons there, juvenile experts said.
It's one more responsibility for the fledgling adult to bear.
"This was a high-profile case," said Harold Timberlake, a youth residential director at Maxey. "You just never know which ways it's going to go."
Last month, 61 residents of Maxey received their GED or high school diplomas during a ceremony inside the chapel of the facility.
Wearing green or black caps and gowns, the young felons were watched by family members and security guards as they climbed the altar to take certificates from "Willard J. Maxey High School."
Even as the lanky Abraham celebrated afterward with chicken and soda, he was thinking about an even bigger commencement, his release in January 2007, said his mother, Gloria Abraham.
He hopes to move to a halfway house before then and has already begun venturing from Maxey to perform community service and talk to youngsters about the vicissitudes of crime.
"He tells them: 'When you have freedom, don't mess it up,'" Gloria Abraham said.
Nate Abraham looks for any excuse to slip away from the facility for a few hours. By the time he's released, he will have spent nearly half of his 21 years at Maxey in Green Oak Township. It's the longest stint at the facility, where the average stay is three years.
The second half of Abraham's life has been nothing like the first, according to court files and interviews with family and counselors. Bagdade declined an interview request for his client.
With a father who abandoned the family and a mother who worked nights, Abraham did whatever he wanted, a 9-year-old who often stayed out past midnight.
At Maxey, however, all he knows is control.
From waking at 6 a.m. to lights out at 9 p.m., Abraham is told when he can eat, when he can brush his teeth, when he can move.
Warning signs
When Abraham leaves Maxey, both he and the juvenile justice system will be searching for redemption.
For this is the second time the justice system has had a chance to help him.
The first occurred shortly before the murder in 1997. At the time, his life had already been spiraling out of control for years.
He first smoked pot when he was 6 and began drinking at 10, according to court records.
He also turned violent by 10, threatening to shoot a student on a school bus and shooting his sister and aunt with a BB gun after they had tried to hide it from him.
His mother sought help from the police, who sent her to juvenile court. Juvenile court referred her to the police.
"He is a boy who has been neglected by his home, our community and our justice system," Oakland County Probate Judge Eugene Arthur Moore said while sentencing Abraham.
"He represents our collective failings."
With no limits on Abraham's behavior, it became even more extreme.
In the week leading to the murder, he was suspected of a theft, a home invasion and beating two teens with a metal pipe, according to police reports.
Finally, on Oct. 29, Abraham was walking home from a friend's home where, earlier in the day, he fired a stolen .22-caliber rifle at a neighbor but missed.
At 10:30 p.m., he spied three men leaving the Sunset Party Shoppe after they bought two 40-ounce bottles of beer, according to trial testimony.
Abraham, who was standing 200 feet away on the other side of a clump of trees, raised the Remington semiautomatic with a missing stock and magazine and shot Ronnie Greene Jr. in the forehead.
The two had never met. Abraham's attorney said during the trial that he was shooting at the trees but, during subsequent counseling sessions at Maxey, the youth admitted that he shot at the men for kicks.
When Abraham was arrested two days later in his sixth-grade classroom, his face was painted red for Halloween.
Making strides
Abraham has come a long way from his days as a 65-pound killer.
During his trial, he was described as antisocial and mildly retarded.
At Maxey, however, he recently began taking college courses and helps tutor other residents, counselors said.
He has written and hopes to publish two books, one of poetry and one about his life.
He also has become more outgoing, counselors said. He talks more about his problems and what he needs to do to solve them.
"He's evidencing more effort, showing more interest," said Elaine Rosati, a social worker and lawyer who is Abraham's legal guardian.
"He's doing everything he's supposed to be doing."
Despite his progress, Abraham is described by other counselors as headstrong, defensive, combative and moody.
He questions or refuses to follow guards' orders, they said. When he does something wrong, he blames others.
Maxey wants him to move through five levels of development, but he remains stuck in stage two, where he reviews what got him into trouble and sets goals to avoid such negative behavior.
At a court hearing to gauge his progress in April, he blamed Maxey staff for two incidents where he disobeyed and argued with them.
"I have emotions like everyone else," he said. "At times, people still judge me for what I was then."
Deborah Carley, chief deputy prosecutor for Oakland County, is worried by what she sees as a pattern of Abraham failing to take responsibility for his actions.
If he bucks authority over minor matters in a setting where the consequences are immediate, she asked, what will he do when someone upsets him in the real world?
"We're not talking about an 11-year-old anymore," she said. "It's time for him to step up and make a life-altering choice. If he doesn't, it's squarely on his shoulders."
Moore, who sentenced Abraham, has become a stern mentor. During review hearings, he gives advice to the teen and quizzes him about what he's learned.
Now, he says, the rest is up to the youth.
"If he stumbles, that's his decision," Moore said in a recent interview. "Only you can decide whether you're successful or not."
You can reach Francis X. Donnelly at (313) 223-4186 or fdonnelly@detnews.com.
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