It has now been one year since a Fall City teen was charged with fatally shooting five of his family members, and King County Superior Court has yet to decide if he will be tried as a juvenile or adult.

The Oct. 21, 2024, incident left two parents and three children dead, as well as one child injured, near Lake Alice in the Fall City area. The 15-year-old accused of committing the homicide has been in juvenile detention since, as he and his defense team wait to learn whether he will be tried in juvenile or adult court. This decision will be made in a decline hearing.

The court held a status conference Sept. 9, where the defendant’s team requested a decline hearing be scheduled for October 2026 — two years after the incident occurred.

According to a July 28 document from the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office (KCPAO), the defense requested this timeline so they can “interview 98 individuals and gather all associated materials prior to seeking any evaluations of the respondent. Yet, defense fails to explain what evaluations they’re seeking, who might conduct them, or what their timeline might be.”

Judge Veronica Galván denied the October 2026 request and set a decline hearing for sometime in April 2026 instead, with the date yet to be determined.

The KCPAO has been waiting for the decline hearing all year as it has been postponed multiple times. In the previously mentioned document, the KCPAO stated its frustrations with the lengthy process.

“In short, defense has provided the court with briefing that is both nonresponsive and unpersuasive as to the issue the court is explicitly seeking to address: how long will it reasonably take for defense to prepare for a decline hearing, and what, if any, obstacles lie in their way?” the document reads.

It continues, “Because defense fails to provide any relevant information that would assist in determining a realistic timeline to set the decline hearing, the state urges this court to hold defense to a much tighter timeline than defense has requested.”

The KCPAO also requested that the judge set status conference hearings for every month in which the defense would have to give a detailed update of what it had accomplished and what it still needed.

The decision of whether to try the defendant in juvenile or adult court is based on the eight Kent Factors, a set of criteria. Among the things a judge must consider in this decision are the seriousness of the crime and the likelihood of reasonable rehabilitation.

The defendant was charged Oct. 24, 2024, with five counts of first degree murder and one count of first-degree attempted murder. He is accused of killing his parents, Mark and Sarah Humiston, as well as his siblings, Katheryn Humiston, 7, Joshua Humiston, 9, and Benjamin Humiston, 13.

The next status conference for the case is scheduled for Dec. 10.

This is a developing story.