On a day that was already cold two weeks ago, the Omaha streets got much colder as police stood guard over the body of 15-year old. It's the corner Everett Williams always caught the city bus on. That's probably what his killer counted on.

Police say Williams died wearing an ankle bracelet. The high school freshman was in the custody of the juvenile justice system when someone shot him.

"It's the life of a child. That makes them difficult cases," said Nicole Goaley, head of the Douglas County Attorney's Juvenile Justice Unit.

There are three-thousand active juvenile cases like Everett Williams' on the sixth floor of the Douglas County Courthouse where the unit is hosed. Nicole Goaley and her team of twelve lawyers know each of those cases from front to back.

"I truly believe the child will end up in a better place because of placement in the juvenile justice system," said Goaley.

Twenty-five years ago Rick Bernt found his name at the top of one of those files.

"The first memory I have was going in to the Douglas County Youth Center. That was kind of a scary place especially when you've never been in the system before," said Bernt.

As a happily married parent of two children, Bernt still has difficulty discussing his past.

"I really don't want to talk about what I did. I was hanging around the wrong crowd."

Rick found himself in the system after he was caught stealing stereos out of cars. The court did not think it could successfully monitor Bernt in the community and so, instead, it placed Rick at the juvenile detention center in Kearney for 9 months. He later did another placement at Boys Town."

Don Kleine is the chief law enforcement officer in Douglas County. He says an opportunity to turn someone in the right direction at an early age is key.

"We have had some homicides recently that were committed by 14, 15, 16, 17 year-olds, that maybe had a history in juvenile court and obviously they didn't get what they needed."

Kleine monitors the cases Nicole Goaley and her team are working on, on a daily basis, but Kleine admits the system doesn't always work.

There are success stories too. Rick Bernt is one of them. He's now married, with two children, and a great job. He credits two counselors for getting him out of the system successfully. He remembers Father Peter at Boys Town and Ramon Galvan in Kearney.

"I told Mr. Galvan you would never see me again."

He didn't. Bernt made the decision to change his life, key for any child. Whether Everett Williams would have made that same decision, no one will ever know.