18-year-old to face trial in Clark shooting

Bill Gang

Tuesday, Nov. 16, 1999 | 11:14 a.m.

Although the evidence was contradictory at a preliminary hearing for an 18-year-old defendant in last month's Clark High School shooting, it was enough to move the case to District Court for a trial.

Justice of the Peace Jennifer Togliatti on Monday ordered Maynor Villanueva to appear for arraignment in District Court on Nov. 22. The judge also refused to reduce the defendant's $1 million bail.

Togliatti also denied a bid by defense attorney Robert Draskovich to block Deputy District Attorney Ed Kane's attempt to use a new law that could put Villanueva in prison for life with no chance for parole if he is convicted.

The law that went into effect Oct. 1 raises the penalties for nonlethal shootings on school grounds to the same level as first-degree murder.

The judge conceded that arguments can be made about the wording and legality of the new law, but she said the proper forum for that argument is District Court.

Although Villanueva did not take the witness stand, his story of self defense came out through testimony from Metro Police gang unit detective Dan Long, who took the teenager's statement after his arrest.

In that statement, Villanueva said the incident began when he was driving by the high school at Arville Street and Pennwood Avenue and saw rival gang members who he called "enemies."

An exchange of gang signs resulted in a fistfight, but instead of fighting him one-on-one, Villanueva said that he was jumped by four rivals, and the only way to save himself was to pull a pistol and open fire.

Long said the defendant said he kept firing until the pistol was empty and then fled on foot to a nearby apartment complex.

Antonio Arroyo, 17, and Cesar Berber, 16, were each hit in an arm, and each testified in court that Villanueva was the gunman.

But they said they were just standing at the high school near more than 30 other students when Villanueva walked up and opened fire without comment. Arroyo said he had seen Villanueva before but didn't know him. Berber said he knew the defendant as "Waco."

While Arroyo, dressed in baggy jeans and a T-shirt for his court appearance, had picked Villanueva's picture out of a lineup, he testified that he was never concerned about the apprehension of the man who shot him.

"I was already shot so what's the difference," Arroyo said.

In Villanueva's statement, he told Long that after the shooting he fled to an apartment area nearby and got into a fight with other rival gang members, before his final attempt to flee was thwarted by police.

But Doug Sartain, a contractor who was driving by the school when he heard the shots, testified that he watched Villanueva fleeing and never witnessed a second altercation.

Sartain said he had called 911 and guided arriving officers as he pursued the shooter, who he identified as Villanueva and who he said disappeared over a wall moments before police arrived.

The witness said as the shooter passed the school, "I heard five or six shots, boom, boom, boom, boom and saw kids running and screaming."

Sartain said that Villanueva "stood there for a few seconds after shooting the gun" before fleeing.

At one point, Sartain said, he and Villanueva made eye contact and simply stared at each other for several seconds before the defendant again ran.

In addition to being held on attempted murder charges in the shootings, Villanueva will stand trial on possessing a stolen car and robbery with a deadly weapon.

The stolen car charge involved a Chrysler convertible that prosecutors allege was a getaway vehicle but was wrecked by Villanueva in the escape.

The robbery counts involve the alleged theft of a bicycle at knifepoint from a neighborhood boy after the crash in an apparent last-ditch effort to escape. But by then, police cut off all avenues of flight and arrested Villanueva.

While Villanueva was ordered to stand trial on the most serious counts, Togliatti ruled there was insufficient evidence to hold him on charges of drug possession and aiming a firearm at a man in the apartment area where the collision had occurred.