He's not a kid. A 12 year old is a kid. He is a grown man (albeit a young one) who is fully capable of knowing right from wrong.
I am not in favor of condemning a 20-23 yr old for life for a mistake like this or using it to define his character especially in this case as he seems like a good dude otherwise but playing the "he's just a kid" card is excuse mongering. Whatever he lied about he knew what he was doing. Now perhaps he didn't fully consider the consequences (I'm sure that probably happened) until he was in too deep and the whole thing got away from him but that doesn't take away from knowing what he was doing was in fact wrong from the get go.
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