JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The 15-year-old charged with killing his grandmother, burying her in the backyard and driving her car to the Canadian border remains locked in an isolation cell at the Duval County jail.
While the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office said Logan Mott is being kept separate from the general population for his own protection, the teenager's mother believes he is being bullied by police and interviewed illegally.
Carrie Campbell Mott points to JSO's tweet when her son was returned to Jacksonville saying, "He is being transported to the police station to be interviewed." She doesn't believe an attorney was present for that interview, and keeping him in an adult jail is intimidating.
"Placing Logan in jail when he has no previous violent history and has not been convicted of a crime is just a way to scare and intimidate a 15-year-old child," Campbell Mott, who lives in Missouri, wrote to News4Jax.
Campbell Mott also believes her diabetic son would get better health care if he were in a juvenile facility.
“We found out (his blood sugar) is being tested at the incorrect times," Campbell Mott wrote News4Jax in an email. "He would get better medical care, take classes and interact with kids and be treated as a detainee instead of a prisoner."
Neither JSO nor Mott's public defender, Charles Cofer, responded Friday to questions about his care. Police did said they cannot discuss a specific inmate's medical condition due to privacy laws.
Mott's living conditions in Duval County jail
The Sheriff's Office would not let News4Jax into the jail to see an isolation cell similar to the one in which Mott is being held. In the 90-square-foot cell where Mott is being held, there's a small bed, a toilet, a sink and enough room to do some calisthenics or other exercise. The cell has one window so that corrections officers can see in.
Mott is allowed one hour of recreation daily, but officials said he does that alone.
"He is high-profile. People know about him, and his father is a corrections lieutenant, so you may have some other inmates (who) want to get at him for that reason," News4Jax crime and safety analyst Gil Smith said. "They will check on him every 10 to 15 minutes. They will sign off on the log. They will observe him to make sure he's OK. Also, once a day, a mental health counselor will come in and talk with him to make sure his frame of mind is still good."
Most is often described as being very quiet and said they could not believe he would commit any type of violent crime. Both when he was in court in Buffalo, New York, shortly after his arrest, and in a Duval County courtroom Wednesday, he was quiet, respectful and polite.
"What he is accused of didn't match up to what we saw briefly," said attorney Rhonda Peoples-Water, who was in court on another case when Mott made his first appearance in Jacksonville.
Psychologist Stephen Bloomfield, who has interviewed many children convicted of violent crimes, said that behavior is not unusual.
"But I have evaluated a large number of the ones who have (been) found guilty of killing someone and they are generally very calm, quiet, pleasant kids," Dr. Bloomfield said.
Mott's childhood was complicated by divorced parents and the fact that his father is a lieutenant with the Sheriff's Office.
Bloomfield, who is not involved with the case, said family life plays a role in cases such as this, but it's never the cause.
"His father's parenting style, his parents being hostile to each other -- it's not going to cause someone to commit a crime but it may be a factor," Bloomfield said.
Bloomfield added that a 15-year-old's brain operates differently from an adult brain. Teens are more impetuous, more impulsive and less likely to be aware of consequences.
Mott is not the first juvenile to be housed at the Duval County jail. Cristian Fernandez was 12 when he was accused of killing his half brother and was housed at the jail for about two years awaiting trial before he accepted a plea agreement.