In a settlement that would save them from being tried as adults, four Las Vegas adolescents who are suspected of beating their high school classmate to death have consented to plead guilty to voluntary manslaughter, attorneys announced on Thursday.
The adolescents were first charged as adults in January with conspiracy and second-degree murder in connection with the death of 17-year-old Jonathan Lewis Jr. in November. Via social media, a cellphone video of the fatal beating was circulated.
The four will be sent to juvenile court and may have to spend an unknown amount of time in a juvenile detention facility, according to the agreement made public during a hearing on Thursday before Clark County District Judge Tierra Jones. The Las Vegas Review-Journal broke the transaction first.
Chief Deputy District Attorney John Giordani stated that all four would face charges in adult court if any of the teenagers decided not to follow through on the agreement.
“The offer is contingent on everyone’s acceptance,” Giordani stated.
Nine youths were detained in connection with Lewis’s killing, including the four. On November 1, just outside of Rancho High School, where everyone was a student, Lewis was attacked.
According to the authorities, the students planned to fight over wireless headphones and a vape pen that had been taken from Lewis’ friend in the alley. Six days after his injuries, Lewis passed away.
One of the four defendants’ defense attorney, Robert Draskovich, described the violent altercation as a tragedy, but he added that finding the four students guilty of adult murder would have been a second tragedy.
“This negotiation enables my client to graduate high school, move on with his life and become a productive citizen,” Draskovich stated.
The lawyer stated that he will request that his client be released from detention with credit for time already served during sentence. when admitting that his client was one of the individuals who kicked Lewis when he was on the ground, Draskovich contended that a jury would have also seen footage demonstrating that at least one of the group members who were with Lewis had a knife.
Lewis’ mother Mellisa Ready said on Thursday to a Local News Outlet in Las Vegas that she was “dumbfounded” by the plea deal. She claimed to have learned that the teenagers planned to enter a guilty plea to murder in the adult court system from the district attorney’s office in Clark County.
Lewis’ mother’s remarks were acknowledged, as was “the pain (she) is going through as she mourns the loss of her son.” However, it stated that the parameters of the negotiations had been communicated to her last week.
The case was resolved, according to Wolfson’s office, in a way that balanced “thoughtful consideration of the egregious facts” with potential legal obstacles that the prosecution would have encountered at trial.
Juvenile court is “best equipped to punish the defendants for their heinous conduct” and provide rehabilitation, according to the statement.
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If a teen in Nevada is charged with murder and was 13 years old or older at the time of the offense, they may face adult charges.
According to court transcripts made public in January, a homicide detective who looked into the matter told a grand jury last year that CCTV and cellphone footage showed Lewis punching one of the teenagers and removing his red hoodie.
The detective claimed that after dragging Lewis to the ground, the suspects started kicking, punching, and stomping on him.
Transcripts show that following the altercation, Lewis was taken to campus unconscious and in serious condition by a local homeowner and a student. The school staff attempted to assist him by calling 911.
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