Four Las Vegas teenagers pleaded guilty Tuesday to voluntary manslaughter in the fatal beating of their high school classmate, part of a deal with prosecutors that prevented them from being tried as adults.
The teens were initially charged in January as adults with second-degree murder and conspiracy in connection with the November death of Jonathan Lewis Jr., 17.
The attack was filmed using a mobile phone and shared widely on social media.
Each teen faces indefinite incarceration in a juvenile detention center, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.
Ty O’Neil / AP
Karen A. Connolly, Damien Hernandez’s attorney, told CBS News: “Although he was not a primary participant, Damien deeply regrets his involvement in the fight that resulted in Jonathan’s tragic death. He takes full responsibility and will accept any punishment imposed on him.”
Juveniles prosecuted in the juvenile court system in Clark County, which includes Las Vegas, do not face traditional prison sentences and are instead released from detention after completing rehabilitation programs, according to Brigid Duffy, director of the juvenile division of the Clark County District Attorney’s Office.
Defense attorney Robert Draskovich, who represents one of the four teens, said after the trial Tuesday that the deal “was a very fair resolution.”
CBS television station KLAS-TV reports that Draskovich said there was no sentencing range for the teens as part of the plea deal and that it was up to a judge to decide the sentence for each of them.
Lewis’ mother, Mellisa Ready, said she did not agree with the plea deal.
Ready called the deal disgusting and tore it apart in court Tuesday morning.
“No one is being held accountable for my son’s murder and is being truly punished,” she told the Review-Journal. “It’s disgusting.”
KLAS claims Ready has criticized the plea deal before, saying she was not informed of the deal when the teens initially agreed to it on August 1.
“I would not have agreed with that deal at all. They should be held accountable as adults — they made an adult choice,” she said. “They knew that by stomping on my child’s head, he was going to die because of it.”
In a statement to The Associated Press after the terms of the agreement were made public, District Attorney Steve Wolfson’s office defended the resolution of the case as thoughtfully addressing both the egregious facts and the potential legal challenges prosecutors would have faced at trial.
The statement said the juvenile justice system is also better equipped to provide young defendants with resources for rehabilitation.
In Nevada, a teenager accused of murder can be charged as an adult if he or she was 13 or older at the time of the crime.
Authorities said the students agreed to meet in an alley near Rancho High School to fight over a vape pen and wireless earbuds that had been stolen from Lewis’ friend. Lewis died of his injuries six days later.
A homicide detective who investigated the case told the grand jury that cellphone and surveillance video showed Lewis removing his sweatshirt and punching one of the students, according to court transcripts released in January. The suspects then pushed Lewis to the ground and began punching, kicking and stomping him, the detective said.
According to transcripts, a student and a neighborhood resident carried Lewis, who had been badly beaten and unconscious, to campus after the fight. School staff called 911 and attempted to help him.
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