Everest Hickey is a sweet-natured, massively built man-child locked up in an acute-care psychiatric facility in Merced County. He’s there because he tried to choke his mother to death last June. At the time, he was 17 years old and in the throes of a psychotic episode. Everest — diagnosed with a variant of autism and schizophrenia — is now facing criminal prosecution in Santa Barbara County, where he grew up, for attempted murder.
For the moment, Everest is extremely happy to be where he is. “This is so much better than jail,” he said in a telephone interview. “Prison is hell. I’m sorry to use that word, ‘hell,’ but it is.” He should know; he spent the better part of five months locked up in Santa Barbara County’s Juvenile Hall, with about 63 teens, all facing criminal charges. But he was the only one charged as an adult.
Still, Everest will be much happier if he gets to stay where he is. It appears that will probably happen. But probably is cold comfort to him and his family, given the looming possibility of his adult sentence: 25 years to life.