CHICORA — Wearing a faded red T-shirt, plaid shorts and sneakers, Zechariah McGrady appeared Tuesday before a packed courtroom.

The red-headed 17-year-old, looking younger than his years, had that deer-in-the-headlights gaze on his face, shackled and handcuffed and surrounded by attorneys, police and sheriff’s deputies.

Staring up at District Judge Lewis Stoughton of Chicora, the teen — all 5 feet, 7 inches of him — remained silent.

He hardly looked the part of an alleged gun-toting home invader, a role state police say he took on last month with his slightly older brother.

Zechariah and Jeremiah McGrady, 19, both of Fairview Township, are accused of breaking into a Karns City home hours before dawn Sept. 20.

Moments later, armed with an Airsoft pistol and knife, the pair allegedly attacked homeowner Adam Bell.

The confrontation turned bloody after Jeremiah McGrady repeatedly stabbed Bell, 34, who would need hours of emergency surgery to save his life.

One after the other Tuesday, Zechariah and Jeremiah McGrady waived their preliminary hearings.

Both brothers are charged with attempted homicide, aggravated assault, robbery, burglary, theft, simple assault and reckless endangerment.

“These are serious charges and if my client didn’t know that before, he does now,” said attorney Joe Smith, a public defender representing Jeremiah, following the proceedings.

“Judging by the crowd that was in the courtroom,“ Smith continued, “the community has an obvious interest in this case.”

Jeremiah remains in the Butler County Prison on $175,000 bail. His younger sibling and co-defendant is being held without bail at a secured juvenile detention facility in eastern Ohio.

But due to the charges in the case, county prosecutors charged Zechariah as an adult.

His court-appointed attorney, Jose Hernandez Cuebas, outside the courtroom, said he plans to file a decertification petition in county court which, if approved, would transfer Zechariah’s case to juvenile court.

Hernandez Cuebas declined further comment about the case against his client, who turns 18 in 37 days.

Police suspect the McGrady brothers, wearing gloves and masks, randomly targeted Bell’s house on Olive Street to burglarize after finding only a closed screen door to an open back door.

The defendants allegedly stole cell phones and were looking for more items to take when Bell woke up and surprised the intruders in the kitchen.

Still sleeping in their bedrooms were Bell’s wife and the couple’s two young children.

Bell and the teenagers scuffled out of the house where Jeremiah stabbed the victim several times with a serrated knife that had an 8-inch blade, police said.

The suspected attackers ran off, leaving the badly wounded Bell behind. He managed to get back into the house where he collapsed on the kitchen floor.

A medical helicopter subsequently flew him to a Pittsburgh hospital where he underwent five hours in surgery to repair severed arteries.

Days later, he was released. Prosecutor Russ Karl, a county assistant district attorney, said Bell was prepared to testify at Tuesday’s hearing, if needed.

A friend of both teenagers helped lead police to the defendants. Investigators said each provided a confession.

“I’m definitely going to have to work to defend (Jeremiah),” Smith admitted. “He’s a young man and it’s unfortunate that he and his brother face such a heavy case with so many felonies.”

Jeremiah on Tuesday also waived his preliminary hearing on unrelated charges stemming from a late-August burglary of a home on Main Street in Karns City.