Judge gives teen life sentence in school shooting

Kim Smith

Thursday, June 8, 2000 | 9:57 a.m.

District Judge Joseph Bonaventure sentenced a teenager to life in prison Wednesday under a new law concerning felony crimes committed on school property.

Maynor Villanueva, 19, must serve at least 20 years of that sentence before becoming eligible for parole.

According to authorities, Villanueva went to Clark High School on Oct. 11 and fired six shots from his .357-caliber Magnum handgun into a group of students standing on the front lawn. Two children were struck in the arm by bullets, with one of the students suffering a shattered bone.

Villanueva and co-defendant, Tony Tejada, 15, then stole a bicycle from a 10-year-old boy at knife-point in order to get away.

The teens 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's attorney, Robert Draskovich, argued the law is flawed because, unlike other laws, it doesn't say a person "shall" receive a certain sentence, it says a person "may" receive a certain sentence. The law also doesn't say when it should be applied or by whom, the judge or a jury.

If Bonaventure had chosen not to enforce the new law, Draskovich said Villanueva could have received an eight to 20-year sentence.

Bonaventure said the statute was appropriate in this case and because Villanueva pleaded guilty instead of going to trial, he was the correct person to impose the sentence.

The judge said that until the world becomes perfect and school violence is "eradicated," he is bound to follow the law of the land.

"If ever there was a candidate that the Legislature had in mind when it adopted this law it is the defendant," Bonaventure said.

Bonaventure, in a written opinion he read in court Wednesday, said Villanueva was on probation for stealing a car at the time of the incident and just nine days earlier had shot two rival gang members through a window.

"The defendant is, quite simply, a 19-year-old gangster," Bonaventure wrote. "He was given a chance at adult probation and used his probation time to shoot four children."

A psychiatrist who examined Villanueva said the teen was upset at having been expelled from school.

"To this court, that is typical of a very self-centered, very self-absorbed, angry youngster who derives extraordinary pleasure from the savage vengeance he wreaks upon others," Bonaventure said. "This defendant had no concern about others -- he did not think about anyone else. It's all about who he is and what he wants."

Villanueva got a 16-to-40-year sentence in the Oct. 2 shooting. It will be served at the same time as his life sentence for the school shooting.

Tejada faces four to 30 years in prison when he is sentenced June 22. He admitted last month that Chief Deputy District Attorney Ed Kane has enough evidence to convict him of battery with use of a deadly weapon in the high school incident.

Draskovich said he intends to file an appeal.