Lance Tiernan, who was convicted in the beating death of a 16-year-old boy at a Fairfield Twp. group home, will spend the four remaining days of his sentence in the adult jail, a Butler County Juvenile Court judge ruled Tuesday.

A brand new law that deals with housing juveniles in adult jails does not apply to Tiernan, Judge Ron Craft said. Senate Bill 337, which took effect Sept. 28, states juveniles under the age of 21 should be housed in juvenile detention centers rather than adult jails.The only exceptions are if the juvenile has been tried, convicted and sentenced in the adult system or if a judge deems him or her too dangerous.

Craft said Tiernan fit one of those exceptions.

“That exclusion is that it’s not applicable to defendants that are adjudicated, convicted and sentenced in the adult system,” he said. “In this case the court takes judicial notice that Mr. Tiernan was convicted and sentenced.”

Tiernan, who turned 18 in May, was found not guilty of murder but guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the beating death of 16-year-old Anthony Parker last December at the One Way Farm group home in Fairfield Twp. He was tried as an adult on a mandatory bind-over from the juvenile court on the murder charge. Because he was found guilty on a non-mandatory bind-over charge, the case was returned to juvenile court.

Judge Patricia Oney sentenced Tiernan in adult court to 54 more days in the Butler County Jail and five years probation on Aug. 20. He has been in the adult jail since March when the grand jury indicted him. Oney stayed her sentence and sent the case back to Craft in juvenile court.

Craft said Tiernan’s attorneys Nick Graman and Charlie M. Rittgers made a good point when they argued Oney stayed the sentence, so the case is still pending.

“Good argument,” Craft said. “But I don’t think that’s what the statute says.”

Craft is the first judge in Butler County, and perhaps the state, to rule on the new law. Another relatively new law — House Bill 86 took effect a year ago — has also come into play in Tiernan’s case. It calls for the reverse bind-over when a juvenile is found not guilty in a mandatory bind-over case.

Tiernan’s original hearing on the reverse bind-over was set for Sept. 28, but an amenability assessment — to see if he is amenable to juvenile sanctions and treatment — wasn’t ordered until Sept. 17, according to Juvenile Court Administrator Rob Clevenger. The assessment takes a month to complete.

Tiernan’s new hearing on the amenability issue is set for Oct. 22 in juvenile court. He will be let out of the Butler County Jail on Saturday and will go to live with a former teacher and her husband.

Rittgers said it is important for Tiernan to go through the juvenile process so his adult record can be erased.

After Craft issued his decision, Graman said the legislature needs to fix the law.

“I don’t think the statute contemplates this situation,” he said. “It’s something the legislature needs to correct because obviously this was enacted after the reverse bind-over statute, but it still doesn’t seem to address individuals in Lance’s position.”

Assistant Prosecutor Brad Burress had no comment.