Teens waive hearings in Bella case

NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y. (WIVB) - A Niagara County grand jury is taking up the case against two Niagara Falls teens in connection with last month's murder of 5-year-old Isabella Tennant.

Sixteen-year-old John Freeman and 18-year-old Tyler Best waived their rights to preliminary hearings Friday. Freeman is accused of murdering little Isabella Tennant, strangling her with his bare hands. Best is accused of helping to hide the young victim's body.

The case is now being sent to Niagara County Court, where a grand jury will decide if Freeman and Best will be indicted, and on what charges. Both boys' families looked on, subdued, from the courtroom.

Freeman's attorney, Robert Viola, said, "My limited investigation, to date, indicates that this is not typical behavior. We're as perplexed as I think everybody else is, because quite frankly, it literally makes no sense."

For now, Freeman will not undergo a psychiatric exam.

"He's able to understand the nature of the proceedings against him; he's able to assist in his own defense," Viola said.

Freeman kept his head bowed and barely spoke in court.

"He is extremely, extremely upset; remorseful concerning this whole proceeding; what he's been accused of, what he's been alleged to have done. And he's really overwhelmed," Viola said.

Viola says community outrage over Bella's death should have no bearing the court case - but he didn't deny its existence, either.

"How could you not have outrage, when a 5- or 6-year-old little girl like that is... her life is destroyed and taken away that way? That's - It's outrageous," he said.

Freeman looked different Friday from how we've previously seen him; he's shaved his head in jail. He and Tyler Best are being kept in isolation because of their ages, and the nature of the crime.