The Okayama Family Court on Thursday decided to send a 17-year-old boy suspected of killing his mother and beating four baseball teammates with a bat in June to a special juvenile reformatory, his defense counsel said.
Judge Keiyu Arai determined it would be more appropriate to send the boy to a reformatory for rehabilitation rather than send the case back to prosecutors, in which case he would have to undergo a criminal trial, the lawyers said.
The family court proceedings took place behind closed doors, with the boy's 46-year-old father and the lawyers, including Takashi Higashi, also present.
A special juvenile reformatory detains delinquent youths, generally between the ages of 16 and 23, who have no major problems with their physical and mental state, and provides correctional education aimed at helping them return to society.