"My client is absolutely, 1,000-percent not guilty," public defender Kevin Gough, who represents 17-year-old De'Marquise Elkins, told The Associated Press. He made the comments Monday, while preparing for Elkins' first court appearance on a murder charge. It was scheduled for 2 p.m. Monday.
Elkins and another 14-year-old boy are charged with murder in Thursday's shooting of the baby, Antonio Santiago, and the wounding of his mother, Sherry West.
The 14-year-old appeared in court earlier Monday. The Associated Press generally doesn't identify juvenile offenders. Elkins is charged as an adult.
At Monday morning's hearing, the 14-year-old came into the courtroom shackled and wearing a baggy orange jumpsuit, The Florida Times-Union reported.
He glanced at the few members of the media allowed into the courtroom for the initial appearance as he shuffled to a lectern facing Glynn County Magistrate Tim Barton.
The magistrate told the boy he couldn't set a bond because only Superior Court judges can do so in murder cases.
"I'm going to see that you get a lawyer immediately," Barton told the boy.
The 14-year-old was in the eighth grade at Glynn Middle School before his arrest, said Jim Weidhaas, a spokesman for the Glynn County school system.
Elkins was last a student in the system in October 2011 when he left Ombudsman, an outsourced alternative school program, Weidhaas said.
The baby's mother said she was walking home Thursday morning when two boys confronted her and one of them opened fire. Police say she was shot in the leg, and her baby was shot in face.
Gough said he has demanded a bond hearing and filed a request for a speedy trial for Elkins.
"We look forward to our day in court," he said.
