Facts for the perfect storm:  elite privileged High School, elite East Coast university, an adult's inexcusable teen behavior, cruel killing of really cute, peaceful birds, government protections, a lopsidedly left-leaning environmentalist State.  The judicial rationale for punishment includes revenge, rehabilitation, and/or prevention.  Revenge in such a left leaning State is hard to come by.  We don't even have capital punishment.  Rehabilitation through a DAG plea... under these factual circumstances?  Political suicide for any judge,  What's left for the judge?  The perfect storm as warning to future generations and today's immature adults.  The best that this young kid ever had the moment he was criminally charged is the possible phoenix rising from the ashes story to guide his future.  The defense lawyer did his job well in keeping the judicial warning down to 45 days jail.  The DAG try was a "Hail Mary" pass to the end zone from which the judge was strategically blocked.