Boy, 14, charged as adult in attempted murder

Bill Gang

Thursday, Oct. 28, 1999 | 11:23 a.m.

A 14-year-old Las Vegas boy, involved on the fringes but not charged as an adult in the shooting at Clark High School on Oct. 11, was arraigned today as an adult on attempted murder charges in an Oct. 2 shooting.

In the earlier attack, a boy and girl, both 16, were shot through the front window of the boy's home as his mother watched.

Tony Tejada was arrested in the aftermath of the school shooting, but was being treated as a juvenile. But his arrest on attempted murder charges in the Oct. 2 shooting changed that.

Under Nevada law, a juvenile charged with attempted murder or murder is automatically certified as an adult. For lesser charges it takes a determination by the Juvenile Judge to force a person under 18 to stand trial in adult court.

Deputy District Attorney Ed Kane contends that both shootings had their genesis in the breakup of the street gang the male victims and the defendants had belonged to.

Kane said that one faction of the gang split away to embrace a more violent and "radical" path and the shootings were one faction's "way of displaying their radicality."

Maynor Villanueva, 18, who is alleged to have been the gunman who shot two other teens at the high school, was arraigned Wednesday on charges he also participated in the Oct. 2 shooting.

Justice of the Peace Nancy Osterle has set a Nov. 9 preliminary hearing for Villanueva and in the earlier shooting. A Nov. 8 preliminary already has been set for Villanueva in Justice of the Peace Jennifer Togliatti's courtroom for the Clark High School shooting. Today pro-tem Justice of the Peace Torris Brand ordered Tejada to join Villanueva in the Nov. 9 hearing.

The shooting of the boy and girl on Magnolia Avenue left the boy with a bullet wound to his arm while the girl suffered a bullet wound to the back that required emergency surgery and the removal of her appendix.

Kane said the boy and his mother both identified Villanueva in police photo lineups as one of the shooters and the mother picked out Tejada as a second suspect.

Both defendants had been in the boy's home and were known to his mother, the prosecutor said.

Villanueva is being held on more than $1 million in bail in the Clark High School shooting and he could be sent to prison for life if he is convicted.

Under a new law that went into effect Oct. 1, attempting to kill someone on school property carries the same sentence as first-degree murder -- life with or without the possibility of parole after 20 years.

Kane announced in court earlier this month that he will seek the harshest penalty against Villanueva, who is also being held on a probation violation charge.

Villanueva's case is the first in the state that would qualify under the tough new anti-school violence law.

In addition to two counts of attempted murder on school property, Villanueva is charged with battery with a deadly weapon, possession of marijuana, possession of a stolen vehicle, robbery and aiming a firearm and possession of a firearm on school property.

The two Clark High School victims, one 15 and the other 16 years old, were standing at the northeast corner of the Clark campus at 2:40 p.m. when the shots were fired. Both escaped with bullet wounds to their arms and ran into the school for help.

Witnesses said there were about 50 people in the vicinity when the gunfire erupted and most scattered when they realized what was occurring at the school at 4291 Pennwood Avenue, near Arville Street and Sahara Avenue.

School had been dismissed about half an hour before the incident.

After the school shooting Villaneuva is alleged to have run with Tejada to a stolen car waiting in a nearby apartment complex, according to court documents.

But the car was wrecked as they attempted to drive off and a bicycle was stolen at knifepoint to facilitate the escape, prosecutors allege.