COURTS TOUGHER ON JUVENILES\Growing number of California youths expected to serve time for\violent crimes.

Byline: Sharon Stewart Knight-Ridder Tribune Wire

They all take one last look at Mom, Dad or some other relative before the bailiff leads them away.

Many still have that roll of baby fat around the middle. Childlike innocence still gleams from eyes that long for the familiarity of home.

But they're not going home. Today, more than ever before, imprisonment awaits youngsters who find themselves in juvenile court on charges of assault, murder and other serious crimes.

And the numbers are expected to grow even more. The number of youngsters serving time under the watchful eyes of California Youth Authority guards is expected to grow from about 9,400 inmates now to more than 10,000 in 1998-99.

"I don't know if it's positive, but the fact remains that society . . . is sick and tired of all this carnage that's being spent upon the community by hoodlum juveniles," said Superior Court Judge Cecil Mills, who presided over his first juvenile case 20 years ago. "And the absolute volume of serious, gratuitous violence makes me say that it's a tool that we need to have."

Mills remembers the time when judges sat down with the minor, his or her parents and a probation officer, informally working out what all thought was best for the child.

"I never saw a case with a kid having a gun that whole time, and now I see five or six a week," Mills said. "I never saw a murder case in that time, and now I have five pending in my courtroom."

A few weeks ago, Mills handled the murder trial of a 17-year-old boy. According to the testimony of a 16-year-old witness, the defendant and four other young people murdered Ruby Nell Chong of Long Beach in 1994 for money. The 16-year-old's name, as well as those of all the juveniles mentioned in this article, aren't being used because of their ages.

The witness said he was hanging out with the suspects on the day of the murder and didn't know about their plans. He was not charged in the murder.

The 17-year-old was accused of driving the murder suspects to Chong's home and helping plan the murder. The other suspects, Kenny Johnson, now 18; Cindy Irene Brown, now 20; her sister, Tabatha Brown, now 22; and William Michael Tyndall, now 18, are being tried separately as adults for Chong's murder.

"Kenny said he was going to try to strangle the lady with a rope," the 16-year-old testified. "He said Cindy could hit the lady over the head with something. They said they were just going to go in there and kill the lady for money."

After the murder, he said, "Kenny said he was trying to strangle the lady. He told Cindy that she wasn't dying and to go get a knife. Cindy said she took the knife and cut the lady's throat."

Unlike adult court, juveniles do not have the right to a jury trial. Mills is expected to decide the 17-year-old's fate by the end of January. The teen could spend the next eight years at a California Youth Authority facility.

Cold-blooded killings like the Chong murder changed the landscape of juvenile court, Mills said.

"The entire juvenile process has become much more formal and all of the safeguards and things used in adult court apply pretty much across the board in juvenile court," he said. Juveniles now "have the right not to incriminate themselves, and they have their Miranda rights explained."

However, juveniles charged with crimes that cause serious injury must prove they should not be tried as adults, Mills said.

"The legislation that provides (for juveniles being tried as adults) pretty much makes it hard not to send them to adult court for any serious, violent crime," Mills said. "You have to find specific reasons why the minor would be amenable to juvenile court rehabilitation."

Lawmakers and voters "have said: 'We don't care if the person is only 16. If he commits robbery with a gun or does a drive-by, he should be punished as an adult and not rehabilitated as a juvenile," Mills added.