A 16-year-old Los Altos youth, who faces charges of attempted murder after allegedly stabbing his father on Christmas night, will remain in custody, authorities said.
The boy's 52-year-old father attended the detention hearing in juvenile court on Dec. 30 when Judge Thomas Edwards ruled that the teen would stay at juvenile hall.
When police first received the 911 call at 2 a.m. Dec. 26 to the 900 block of Dolores Avenue, a women said her husband had fallen out of bed and was having "some type of episode."
When police arrived at the home, they found a bleeding man who had been stabbed several times while sleeping, police said.
After investigating, Los Altos police arrested the couple's son on charges of attempted murder.
The father had been stabbed with a 3-inch kitchen knife in the neck and left arm and received some type of blunt trauma to his eye from a fist or finger, said Sgt. Mark Macaulay, with the Los Altos police.
Neighbors said they woke in the night to sounds of engines running - an ambulance, police cars. The next morning they found yellow crime-scene tape "all over."
"I was shocked," one neighbor said after hearing what had happened. "This was totally out of the blue." He said he knew the family, but they "kept pretty much to themselves."
The father worked from a home office, designing software and doing statistical analysis for cardiologists, police said.
The next step will be for the court to decide if the teen will be tried as a juvenile or an adult, said Deputy District Attorney David Soares.
"The stakes are high, the issues complicated," he said.
If tried as an adult and if the events are deemed premeditated, the teen could face 15 years to life in state prison, Soares said.
If tried as a juvenile, there is no specific penalty, Soares said.
include keeping the teen in custody until age 21 or 25, Soares said.
At one time the teen was a student at Los Altos High School. "There were some circumstances when he left," Macaulay said.
Then he attended a private continuation high school in Mountain View for "a short period of time," police said.
At the time of the stabbing, the boy was not enrolled in school.
Dr. Stephen Diamond, a Los Altos clinical pyschologist who reviews cases similar to this for superior court but who is not involved in this case, said there are several things he looks at when making an evaluation.
"I would want to know about substance abuse, about a social history - of school, grades. Does the person have a history of impulsive/aggressive behavior? All these are elements of the picture," Diamond said.
Police are continuing their investigation. "Everybody wants to do what's best for the whole family," Macaulay said. The police are not releasing any names because the defendant is a juvenile. If the teen is tried as an adult, police said they would release names.