The only comparison I am making here is to drive home the point that a 14 year old is perfectly capable of handling the responsibility.
Along this line, I got my Houdini when I was 10, and the only reason he's still around (nearly 11 years later!!) is because I got VERY lucky. ie: Our walmart didn't stock red wigglers, and when he wouldn't eat crickets for a long time (the petstore person actually told us they would eat crickets) we got lucky that the local bait store minnows are a species that isn't poisonous to them.

I mean, snakes aren't exactly easy to monitor; they don't act a lot differently when they're unwell, they don't have regular eating habits, and most vets have no clue what to do with them (I know that you can monitor a snake's eating and behavior and that there are great herp vets out there, I'm just saying an inexperienced kid probably wouldn't be able to do that or have access to one).

I totally agree that situations like this are very sad and people should be more educated before getting a pet, but I don't think this kid or his grandma were bad people or that they should be charged with anything, simply because I'm aware of how easy it can be to think you're providing correct care for a snake and end up accidentally harming it. Also, he was getting rid of them dirt cheap, so maybe he realized he had no clue what to do and was trying to do the right thing?
idk. I just like to assume the best in people until I have a really good reason to think otherwise.