Commonwealth v. Philip S.

The juvenile, aged twelve years and eleven months at the time of the events recounted below, is charged in the juvenile session of the Lawrence Division of the District Court with delinquency by reason of manslaughter. During interviews on December 18 and 20, 1989, the juvenile made oral admissions and signed two statements, in which he admitted that he had set fire to a couch located on the porch of his family’s second-floor apartment on the evening of December 17, 989. The fire spread throughout the three-story wooden dwelling. A Lawrence fire fighter was severely injured while fighting the…