Maddy Middleton Murder: Teen Charged In Brutal Rape-Killing Of 8-Year-Old Says He Didn’t Do It

The teenage boy accused of raping and murdering 8-year-old Madyson “Maddy” Middleton on July 26 appeared in a Santa Cruz, California, courtroom on Monday to deny that he committed any of the heinous crimes police say he committed against the little girl — a vicious and brutal attack that ended with the killer dumping Maddy’s body in a garbage bin as if she were nothing but another piece of trash.

Adding one last horror to the unthinkable crime, according to a KION-TV report, an autopsy in August showed that little Maddy was still alive when her murderer stuffed her in the dumpster after tying her up with duct tape, beating and raping her, and stabbing her in the neck.

The girl, who was last seen alive happily riding her razor scooter outside the apartment complex where she lived, died of “positional asphyxiation,” the coroner found — meaning that she suffocated due to the unnatural way she was stuffed into the garbage container.

Maddy’s 15-year-old neighbor Adrian Jerry “A.J.” Gonzalez reportedly hung around the apartment complex the day after Maddy Middleton disappeared, playing with a yo-yo and repeatedly asking searchers and police if they had “any updates” on the search, the Santa Cruz Sentinel reported.

Gonzalez was standing nearby when the 8-year-old’s body was discovered in the dumpster, and police wasted no time in arresting the teenage neighbor. They accused him of luring Maddy back to his family’s apartment, where he bound her and carried out the inhuman torture, rape, and murder.

“She knew him,” Santa Cruz Police Chief Kevin Vogel said. “I think she had a reasonable amount of trust in him. We don’t think she was taken against her will.”

But when Gonzalez appeared in Santa Cruz Superior Court on Monday, he entered a plea of not guilty, denying all of the charges against him.

Those charges include murder, rape, lewd acts with a child younger than 14, and rape by instrument.

As Gonzalez entered his plea inside the courthouse, Maddy’s father, Michael Middleton, led a rally outside — a rally, he said, intended to focus public attention on the memory of his daughter and away from the teen accused of killing her.

“She was beautiful, loving and now she’s gone,” Middleton told KION. “Hopefully it continues to be a positive thing. Hopefully people will find love and compassion and forgiveness in all this.”

A.J. Gonzalez is scheduled to next appear in court on October 29. He is being held on $5 million bail in the murder of Maddy Middleton.

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