OGDEN — For the second time, a judge has declined a request to release from jail the 16-year-old suspect in a Roy High School bombing plot.
But 2nd District Juvenile Judge Janice Frost on Friday did grant a request for furloughs with Joshua Kyler Hoggan’s parents so the teen can continue mental health counseling.
After Friday’s brief hearing, officials declined to comment on the exact status of Hoggan’s medications or treatment.
Hoggan appeared via a video feed from the Weber Valley Juvenile Correctional Center in Roy, where he has been incarcerated since his Jan. 25 arrest.
He and co-defendant Dallin Todd Morgan, 18, are each charged with possession of a weapon of mass destruction.
Morgan was arraigned Wednesday in adult court and remains free on $20,000 bail with a status conference set for Feb. 23.
Frost set a Wednesday status conference for Hoggan. At that time, Hoggan will likely appear in person and a certification hearing could be scheduled, said state courts spokeswoman Nancy Volmer.
Prosecutors this week filed a motion with Frost to certify Hoggan to stand trial as an adult. If they persuade the judge to move Hoggan’s trial to 2nd District Court, he, like Morgan, could face a prison term of five years to life.
Hoggan also had a detention hearing Jan. 27, two days after his arrest, say Roy police. At that time, his release was also denied.
If Hoggan’s case remains in juvenile court, he could be held only until his 21st birthday, which would be the goal of his defense team, said Jack Helgesen, of the two-county law firm of Helgesen, Waterfall & Jones.
The Clearfield-based firm has been retained by the family, with Ogden partner Scott Nickle appearing at Friday’s hearing.
Helgesen wouldn’t comment in detail on Hoggan’s mental state beyond saying, “He’s got some issues.”
Morgan and Hoggan were arrested after police and school authorities uncovered what they say was a plot to set off a bomb during a school assembly, steal an airplane and fly out of the country.
Authorities were tipped off by several Roy High students who said they received troubling text messages from Hoggan.
In brief details released by Volmer on the certification motion filed Tuesday, Deputy Weber County Attorney Letitia Toombs argues that Hoggan should be tried as an adult because the potential offenses were directed at the entire student body and staff at Roy High and had been planned since September.
Toombs did not return phone calls, and her boss, County Attorney Dee Smith, declined to comment.
Police say Hoggan and Morgan made extensive preparations for the crime, including using computer flight-simulator games to learn to pilot a plane.
In December, Hoggan booked a flight to Colorado, where he interviewed the principal of Columbine High School in Littleton, a trip the principal confirmed with Roy police.
Columbine was the scene of a 1999 shooting rampage by two students who killed 12 students and one teacher before committing suicide.
Roy police say Hoggan seemed fascinated with the Columbine shootings while mocking the shooters as less intelligent than himself.
Back at Roy High School on Friday, Hoggan’s classmates attended the annual Mr. Royal competition. The lead-up event for an upcoming dance was the first assembly since the arrests.
“I saw some of my (younger) friends post on Facebook that they were scared to go to school today,” said James McIntyre, who attends the adult night school.
Zach Norr, a junior, said he was nervous at the prospect of attending and didn’t.
Friends Kadden Holly and Tim Stewart, both sophomores, debated whether to go. If students felt too uncomfortable attending the assembly, they could call their parents to sign them out of school early, Stewart said.
Even though students had the choice to opt out, the event was still packed, said sophomore Beth Bowman.
Ultimately, Holly and Stewart went.
“It was kind of sketchy at first, but cool once it started,” Holly said.
Teachers were everywhere and staff kept an eye out. “They made it feel comfortable,” Holly said.
At the end of the day, “it was just an assembly, like the others,” said junior Jake Bills.
Standard-Examiner reporter Michael McFall contributed to this article.
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