Seventeen-year-old Jaered Long was booked into the Douglas County Jail Tuesday as he awaits a criminal trial in the stabbing death of his grandmother, Deborah Bretthauer. He was previously an inmate in Douglas County Juvenile Detention.

Long faces a single charge of first-degree murder as an adult. However, he faces two felony battery charges as a juvenile, and Douglas County District Attorney Charles Branson said in an email that Long would remain in juvenile court for those cases.

Jaered Long

Douglas County District Court Judge Kay Huff decided Long would be tried as an adult in the murder case. In support of her decision, Huff cited the nature of the crime and and a lack of effective rehabilitation resources that would be available to Long if he were convicted as a juvenile.

Under the current law, Branson said the two felony battery charges — which were filed after the murder charge — would need to be waived up to adult status on their own merit.

“At this time, we do not plan to ask for that waiver given the gravity of the adult case,” he said. “We will have those charges trail the adult case and decide what to do with those charges after the adult case is resolved.”

During a two-day hearing in September three Douglas County Juvenile Detention Center corrections officers testified that Long had assaulted them. Felony battery charges were filed for two of the three cases and Branson said his office does plan to file the third.

Sentencing guidelines differ greatly between convictions in adult court and adjudication in juvenile court.

For example, if Long would have been adjudicated of first-degree murder in juvenile court, he would have faced a maximum sentence of 60 months in prison or up to the age of 22. If he is convicted in adult court, he faces life in prison.

Long’s murder trial is scheduled to begin in February 2017, and Branson said the outcome of the case will determine what happens to the battery charges.

If Long is convicted of murder and adjudicated in the battery cases, Branson said the murder conviction would control the sentencing, meaning he would be sent directly to prison rather than to a juvenile facility.

Long was arrested in late December after Bretthauer, 67, was found stabbed to death in her apartment at 1200 George Court.

Long, who was 16 at the time, and Bretthauer lived in the apartment together.

Long remains in the Douglas County Jail in lieu of a $500,000 bond. If he is able to post bond, he is ordered not to have any contact with any of the cases’ witnesses, excluding his family.