Though juvenile crime is on the decline locally, the number of kids charged as a adults remains steady.
As the Eyewitness News I-Team learned, most kids have no idea they can face adult time for their crimes and the existing body of research suggests that many of the kids that do go to prison come out worse than they went in.
911 Operator: "911 emergency"
Caller: "They went that way. Yeah, we just had a robbery. We just had a robbery. They went that way. They're running over there."
A botched get-a-way straight from the files of stupid criminals. A violent pre-meditated fast food hold-up ends with the suspects getting arrested.
911 caller: "The cops are right behind them. Fleeing into the path of a metro patrol car. You cannot miss them. I can see them from here."
Once in custody, police identify the ring-leader of the dumb crooks as a 16-year-old dumb kid.
"I know what I did was wrong. I didn't think it would be that serious," said Monica Leon. She now faces 12 felony counts including burglary, kidnapping, robbery and all with the use of a deadly. She could face a life sentence.
Absent evidence of substance abuse or a mental or behavioral problem, Nevada law requires Leon be charged as an adult.
"There's little doubt in my mind that this was an adult level offense," said Deputy District Attorney Josh Tomscheck.
"Obviously Ms. Leon may not think that it was a big deal that she put a gun in somebody's face and took property from someone else, but I can assure you, the multiple victims thought it was a big deal," said Tomscheck.
Over the objection of prosecutors, initially, the district court releases Leon to her family. Yet when she appears several months later for her preliminary hearing, a different judge takes the bench.
"It is my opinion that Ms. Leon should not be out on OR," said Justice of the Peace Deborah Lippus. She added, "I don't care how old they are. If they're running around with guns robbing people, jeopardizing the lives of people, they have no business walking the streets free without some type of protection in place."
"Had she stayed out, I think she would've been able to show that she was no longer getting in trouble. Not hanging out with the same crowd. Going to school. Getting good grades, I think that would've weighed heavily in her favor," said Gabe Grasso, Leon's attorney.
Instead, Leon spends the next six months in the Clark County Detention Center. In lock down 23 hours a day, for her own protection. Her only escape is multiple court hearings until she concedes to a deal.
"That's the tragedy of this whole certification thing, once they're certified up to adult court. It's not as if they're treated any differently. Sometimes the judge will take their youth into account, but they'll get sentenced to prison," Grasso said.
Leon will be in custody for a minimum of four years or a maximum of 10 in an adult correctional facility. The sentence comes as no surprise to anyone, except Leon.
"I felt sad, angry, disappointed. I couldn't really think. I couldn't believe that it was really happening. That I was coming to prison for that much time," said Leon.
Leon will be of legal drinking age before she becomes eligible for parole. The I-Team meets her on her 18th birthday.
"I feel like this was a hard hit. Because they didn't give me the opportunity, they just sent me straight and I had no record. And that's how the judge seen it. But you make out of it what you want to make out of it," Leon said.
Behind bars, the dumb kid says she hopes to mature into a smarter version of the young woman she was before the robbery instead of a more sophisticated stupid criminal.
Critics of the existing system say the juvenile courts need more resources to provide a broader range of punishments. Something more than a slap on the wrist but less than adult time.
