After seven days of heated and sometimes emotional testimony, arguments ended yesterday in the hearing that will determine whether a Deptford teenager will be tried as an adult in last year's stabbing death of 12-year-old Kim Marie Anderson of Deptford.
Kenneth Houseknecht, the 16-year-old accused of the slaying, was described this week by his parents and medical, psychological and psychiatric experts as a disturbed and mentally ill youngster in desperate need of treatment.
Defense attorney Cesar Alvarez-Moreno presented experts who testified that they believed that Houseknecht, who was a neighbor of Andersons', could be treated and rehabilitated in less than three years. Experts testifying for Assistant Gloucester County Prosecutor Keith E. Johnson said that process may take 10 years.
