BANGOR – A teenager accused of attempted murder agreed Tuesday in 3rd District Court to be tried as an adult even though the alleged stabbing took place when he was 17.

Aaron Heath, who turned 18 on June 22, waived his right to a bind-over hearing to determine whether he should be tried as an adult on charges of attempted murder and elevated aggravated assault.

He is expected to be indicted by a Penobscot County grand jury next month for allegedly stabbing a 16-year-old male on May 14 at an Essex Street apartment building in Bangor. Heath allegedly stabbed the boy in the abdomen; as a result, the youth lost a kidney and suffered a liver laceration.

If convicted, Heath faces up to 30 years in prison and could join his two older brothers at the Maine State Prison in Warren.

Heath, who spent much of his life in foster care, has told police that he wants to follow in the footsteps of his two brothers, both convicted killers. The teenager allegedly told officers that when he turned 18, he intended to get a hammer and follow his brothers to prison.

Carl Wayne Heath and Smokey D. Heath each are serving 40-year sentences for killing a person with a hammer in separate incidents.

Norman Kominsky, the Bangor attorney representing the youngest Heath brother, declined Tuesday to comment on the case.

Heath has been held at the Mountain View Youth Development Center in Charleston since his arrest in May in Bangor. He was transferred to Penobscot County Jail after Tuesday’s hearing.

If he had faced the charges as a juvenile, he could have been sentenced to a juvenile facility until his 21st birthday, Penobscot County Deputy District Attorney Michael Roberts said in May.

“He’s really too old to benefit from what we could do for him in the system as a juvenile,” Roberts has said. “This was a very serious crime. Three years is not enough time to adequately deal with what he did or deal with what led to this crime, especially given the family history.”