On Tuesday, the teenager made it to America under circumstances far from idyllic, appearing in a packed federal courtroom in New York on what are believed to be the first piracy charges in the U.S. in more than a century.

Prosecutors portrayed him as the brazen ringleader of the pirates who shot at the ship’s captain and bragged about prior acts of piracy. But the bravado that authorities say Musi displayed as the first pirate to board the Maersk Alabama on April 8 had evaporated by the time he entered the courtroom.

The 5-foot-2 Musi looked bewildered and scrawny in prison clothes that were several sizes too big.

When his court-appointed lawyer said Musi’s father would be interviewed in Somalia to verify his birth date, Musi put his head in his hand and broke down in tears. When the judge asked him if he understood that court-appointed lawyers would represent him, the teenager responded through a translator: “I understand. I don’t have any money.” When he was asked to raise his right hand, he pointed it into the air as if he was being called on in class.

The decision by the federal government to try Musi here has thrust the teenager into the international spotlight, and raised legal questions about whether the U.S. is going too far in trying to make an example of someone so young.

Musi was charged with piracy, conspiracy and brandishing and firing a gun during a conspiracy. The most serious count carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison.

“An act of piracy against one nation is a crime against all nations,” said Acting U.S. Atty. Lev Dassin.

The government says he is 18. A federal judge agreed Tuesday, ruling that Musi is an adult and that the case can proceed in open court. But his lawyers said they would continue to investigate his age and believed that he would ultimately be exonerated.

Defense lawyer Deirdre von Dornum said she has had to reassure Musi that the American justice system is fair, because he knows only the anarchy that has ruled Somalia. She said he smiled before a gaggle of news cameras Monday only because he had never seen a camera before.

“As you can tell, he’s extremely young, injured and terrified,” Von Dornum said.

The details of Musi’s life are murky, with his parents in Somalia insisting he was tricked into getting involved in piracy.

“He was brainwashed,” the teen’s mother, Adar Abdirahman Hassan, 40, told the Associated Press. “People who are older than him outwitted him; people who are older than him duped him.”