ORLANDO -- In an emotional day of testimony, Michael Hernandez's parents described their son as a good boy who had somehow gone terribly wrong, and they recounted troubling changes in his behavior during the months before he killed 14-year-old Jaime Gough, a classmate at Southwood Middle School in Southwest Miami-Dade.

Their bright, inquisitive and outgoing teen became withdrawn, cold toward them and obsessed with daily routines involving exercise and odd repetitive behavior, the Hernandezes testified. At one point, shortly before Jaime's death, they said they had talked about taking their son to a psychologist, but Michael said he would not talk to one even if they forced him to go.

Kathy and Manny Hernandez also showed flashes of anger from the witness stand over the way their son, then 14, was taken from school the day of Jaime's death and questioned for several hours without either of them or an attorney present in the room.

''They took our son from school without telling us,'' Manny Hernandez said to Miami-Dade prosecutor Kathleen Hoague. ``They grilled him for hours. . . . They didn't tell us he needed a lawyer. They told us he was a witness when they knew full well he was a suspect.''

During the police interrogation on Feb. 3, 2004, Hernandez confessed in a flat, emotionless manner to slitting Jaime's throat in a school restroom before their first-period classes.

The Hernandezes went to the Miami-Dade police station in Doral in the late afternoon after police called to say they were questioning him because he was a witness to Jaime's slaying.

Kathy Hernandez said that when police brought her son into a conference room to see her and her husband, she was shocked by his appearance.

''I saw nothing in his face,'' she said. ``I saw no emotions. I saw nothing in his eyes. I saw nothing that was the Michael that I knew, and he's still not the same.''

INSANITY DEFENSE

She and her husband believe their son is mentally ill and was insane the day he killed Jaime. Hernandez's lawyers, led by Richard Rosenbaum, have mounted an insanity defense.

They say Hernandez was ''training'' to be a serial killer and taking ''advice'' from a penny he carried in his pocket -- and from the family dog, Minnie.

Prosecutors say that while Hernandez might have a personality disorder or mental illness, he is not legally insane and knew that what he was doing was wrong.

Hernandez, now 18, is charged with first-degree murder and would face a mandatory sentence of life in prison if convicted. The trial was moved to Orlando because too many prospective jurors in Miami-Dade said they already knew the details of the high-profile killing from news reports.

During his testimony, Manny Hernandez said the brutal killing of Jaime was completely out of character for the son he knew.

''He was a good child,'' he said. ``He's still a good child who, for reasons unbeknownst to me, did something horrible.''

Kathy Hernandez became emotional on the witness stand as she talked about the first time she had met Jaime, a few months before he was killed.

'I told Michael, `I liked your friend,' '' she testified, her voice cracking as she held back tears. 'He said, `I knew you would.' ''

The only explanation for the ''horrendous'' thing that her son did to Jaime is that Michael is insane, she said.

`MY ONE CHANCE'

Sitting outside the courtroom shortly before she took the stand, Kathy Hernandez said she was worried about testifying.

''I feel like it is my one chance to help Michael get some help,'' she said. ``I know he's never coming home, but I just want him to be in a place where he'll get some treatment.''

Across the waiting area, Maria Gough, Jaime's mother, sat staring out a floor-to-ceiling window. The trial, now in its second week, has been harder than she thought it would be, she said. One day last week, the judge asked her to leave the courtroom after defense attorneys objected to her loud sobs as the attack on Jaime was described in graphic detail.

The first of what is expected to be several mental health experts the defense will call began testifying late Thursday. Gary Rosenfeld, a forensic psychologist from Fordham University in New York, said it was clear ''there is something seriously wrong'' with Hernandez.

He will be back on the stand Friday.

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