Teen Adrián Jerry González Charged As Adult For 8-Year-Old Maddy Middleton Brutal Murder

On the night of July 26, Madyson “Maddy” Middleton went missing from the Tannery Arts Center, the apartment complex where she and Adrián Jerry González lived in Santa Cruz, California. 24 hours later, the 8-year-old girl was found dead inside a dumpster. Authorities believed Middleton had been killed before the police received the call notifying she was missing.

Two days later, on July 28, the Santa Cruz police arrested 15-year-old A.J. González and stated the teen lured Maddy into his apartment, beat her up, raped her, strangled her to death, and dumped her body in a recycling bin, “She knew him. She was 8 years old. I think she had a reasonable amount of trust in him. I don’t think she was taken against her will,” said Police Chief Kevin Vogel to the Santa Cruz Sentinel.

According to officials, González revealed himself as a suspect during the 26-hour search that was conducted to find the body by repeatedly asking questions about the investigation. Finally, an anonymous source came forward and stated the boy dumped the body there just five minutes before the mother’s 911 call and that he returned to the bin twice in the hour after the police arrived, surveillance videos confirmed the happenings.

Shortly after Middleton was found, A.J. González attempted to run away from the scene and was arrested. When he was taken into custody, authorities announced there was enough evidence to charge him. On Thursday July 30, he made his first court appearance where he was charged with murder, forcible rape, great bodily injury and kidnapping by lying in wait.

Those who watched the teen grow up before their eyes at the Tannery Arts Center hoped for all this to be a mistake, or an accident. But the image of the teen began to deteriorate when investigators revealed a darker side to the skater boy. Social media posts portraying a potentially troubled and suicidal teen surfaced: “Wears all black to try to look powerful and hide the crippling anxiety. Towards the future and the constant worry that I’ll never find someone who loves me,” was one the messages the kid included in one of his Instagram posts. Late Wednesday morning, his account was taken offline after it was flooded with web traffic and threatening comments.

Santa Cruz District Attorney Jeffrey Rosell said he couldn’t remember ever dealing with a case like this throughout his career, with a suspect so young being accused of such horrific crimes. Santa Cruz County Superior Judge Timony Volkmann ordered González to re-appear in court on September 21.