Teen could get parole in 4 years for shooting

Kim Smith

Tuesday, Aug. 8, 2000 | 10:43 a.m.

One of the teenagers involved in a gang shooting outside Clark High School was sentenced Monday to four to 30 years in prison.

Defense attorney Gregory Denue said he hopes Tony Tejada uses the lifeline that has been given him. Had he not entered a plea agreement the 15-year-old could have spent the rest of his life in prison.

Now, Denue said, his client could be paroled after four years.

According to prosecutors, Tejada and Maynor Villanueva fired shots into a rival gang member's house on Oct. 2, injuring two teenagers. Nine days later, Villanueva fired six shots from a .357-caliber Magnum into a group of students outside Clark High School, wounding two in the arm.

The two youths were the first charged under a state law that went into effect Oct. 1. That law states that a person convicted of committing a felony on school grounds may receive life without the possibility of parole, life with parole possible after 20 years or 50 years in prison with parole possible after 20 years.

Villanueva, 19, was sentenced to life in prison in June in connection with the school shooting. He is serving a concurrent 40-year sentence for the Oct. 2 shooting.

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