On August 21, 2025, Jordan Hall Fernandez (17) pled guilty to Unlawful Use of a Weapon with a Firearm as an adult and admitted to an allegation of Robbery in the First Degree with a Firearm in juvenile court for an armed robbery committed when he was 16-years-old. At the time of the robbery, Hall-Fernandez was on parole from the Oregon Youth Authority. Therefore, he also admitted to a probation violation in that separate case. The resolution of these cases were part of a stipulated negotiation by the State and Hall Fernandez to resolve the matter jointly in both Criminal Court and Juvenile Court.
For the adult conviction, Marion County Circuit Court Judge Lindsay R. Partridge sentenced Hall Fernandez to 60 months Department of Corrections. On the juvenile matter, Judge Partridge committed Hall Fernandez to the custody of the Oregon Youth Authority for placement at a closed custody youth correctional facility.
For juvenile adjudications, offenders may be held in custody or be paroled by the Oregon Youth Authority until they’re 25. If waived into adult court, however, individuals who commit crimes while under 18 receive adult-length sentences but are also automatically eligible for a “second look” (release hearing) halfway through their criminal sentence due to the 2019 legislative changes to Oregon law under Senate Bill 1008 (“SB 1008 (2019)”).
Sente Bill 1008(2019), changed the way Oregon charges youth that commit violent felonies, requiring that their cases begin in Juvenile Court. Here, through stipulated resolution, the State and the defense agreed to the waiver into adult court and the sentence described above, avoiding a lengthy and expensive hearing in which the State has to prove by a preponderance of the evidence that the youth had an “adult-like understanding” of the nature of his actions at the time of the offense, and that it is in his and the public’s “best interests” that he be waived into adult court.
Youth’s co-defendant, Barry Johnson, plead guilty to Robbery in the First Degree and Felon in Possession of a Firearm for the same incident on June 30, 2025, in Marion County Circuit Court case 24CR32532 and awaits sentencing before Marion County Circuit Court Judge Courtland Geyer on September 5, 2025.
The other involved, co-defendant juvenile remained in juvenile court and has been adjudicated for Robbery in the First Degree with a firearm. He was also committed to the Oregon Youth Authority.
This case was investigated by Salem Police Department, with special thanks to Salem Police Detectives Pence Hodges and Griffin McDowell, as well as Officer Alicia Gomnes, who located the stolen vehicle used in the robbery. The criminal and juvenile matters were prosecuted by Marion County Chief Deputy District Attorney Brendan P. Murphy and Deputy District Attorney Tim O’Donnell.
Since the passage of SB 1008 (2019), Hall Fernandez remains part of a very small number of youth in Oregon who have committed significant, violent criminal acts who have been waived by either agreement or hearing into adult criminal court. “This is an appropriate outcome” said Chief Deputy District Attorney Brendan Murphy. “It accounts for the seriousness of the offense with an adult conviction, which will prohibit him from possessing firearms in the future, but it also provides the defendant with the rehabilitative services of the Oregon Youth Authority. Furthermore, it avoids an incredibly costly, lengthy and complicated waiver proceeding for Marion County taxpayers.”
