New law upheld; Villanueva may be behind bars for life

Bill Gang

Friday, Feb. 11, 2000 | 10:43 a.m.

A legal challenge to the new law that elevates the punishment for nonlethal shootings on school property to the same level as first-degree murder has failed.

Thursday's decision by District Judge Joseph Bonaventure means that 18-year-old Maynor Villanueva could find himself spending the rest of his life in prison with no chance of parole, although no one was killed in the attack at Clark High School.

Villanueva is charged with two counts of attempted murder in the shootings of two students at Clark on Oct. 11 and his trial date is set for March 13.

Villanueva is the first person in the state to be charged under a tough new law that went into effect Oct. 1 as one way to combat school violence. As an alternative to a sentence of life with no parole, a conviction could also result in life in prison with parole possible after 20 years.

Attorney Robert Draskovich contended the law is fatally flawed because it is not clear when the harsh penalty can be imposed or even whether it should be the judge or a jury making the decision.

Other sentence enhancements -- like using a weapon in a crime or victimizing a person over 65 -- are a certainty, but the school violence law only says the life sentence "may" be imposed.

"That's unconstitutionally vague," Draskovich argued to the judge.

But Bonaventure ruled that the new law is no different than other laws that give a judge discretion to impose a particular enhancement or penalty.

Deputy District Attorney Ed Kane has proclaimed that he will seek the harshest penalty against Villanueva, who is also being held on charges that he shot two other teens nine days before the Oct. 11 school altercation.

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, aiming a firearm and possession of a firearm on school property.

The two Clark High School victims, one 15 and the other 16, 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 Ave., near Arville Street and Sahara Avenue.

After the school shooting, Villaneuva is alleged to have run with 15-year-old Tony 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.

Tejada only faces charges in Juvenile Court over the Clark High School incident, but he is charged as an adult with attempted murder in the Oct. 2 shootings at the home of a purported rival gang member. He was identified as one of the gunman who fired through a window at the home.

That boy suffered a bullet wound to his arm, but his 16-year-old girlfriend was shot in the back and required emergency surgery to remove her appendix.