Child Who Killed Denied Bail

Robbery Charge For Tate While On Probation For 6-Year-Old's Murder

(CBS/AP) 
Kathleen Grossett-Tate, Tate's mother and a Florida Highway Patrol trooper, told The Miami Herald that her son is innocent and that she would stand by him as she did during the murder case.

"He would be the dumbest man ever to be born if he should have done something like this knowing what we have been through, facing life imprisonment for the rest of his life," said Rev. Dennis Grant, part of a team of community and religious leaders who lobbied the state for Tate's early release. "I don't buy that he is guilty and we are still standing with Lionel at this time."

Tate again faces the possibility of a long stretch in prison, especially since a judge last October said he would have "zero tolerance" for probation violations after Tate was caught with a knife blocks from his home late at night.

The hulking, 160-pound boy had claimed at first that he killed Tiffany while imitating pro wrestling, then later said he accidentally hurt the girl when he jumped on her from a staircase. But experts said the girl died of skull fractures and a lacerated liver in a beating that lasted up to five minutes.

A jury convicted him of first-degree murder, triggering an automatic life sentence. The sentence was overturned on appeal and Tate was released on a plea bargain after serving three years. The plea deal placed him under house arrest for a year, followed by probation for 10 years.

Several psychologists had warned that the teen could again wind up in trouble with the law if he was sent to an adult prison instead of being remanded to a juvenile facility and receiving counseling.

"If we'd got him the kind of help and attention he needed early on, maybe it would never have gotten to this point," Michael Brannon, a forensic psychologist who examined Tate in 1999 and found that Tate had a "high potential for violence," told the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel.