Teen shooter pleads guilty

Kim Smith

Tuesday, March 14, 2000 | 10:52 a.m.

A Las Vegas teenager arrested in connection with a shooting outside Clark High School on October 11 pleaded guilty Monday, the day his trial was supposed to start.

According to Deputry District Attorney Ed Kane Maynor Villanueva, 18, pleaded guilty to attempted murder with use of a deadly weapon on school grounds and guilty in an incident that happened nine days earlier -- attempted murder with use of a deadly weapon.

Villanueva is the first suspect to be tried under a new law that elevates the punishment for nonfatal shootings on school grounds to the same level as first-degree murder. If he gets the maximum sentence, Kane said, he will serve a life sentence on one charge or the other, even if the Nevada Supreme Court later overturns the new law.

According to authorities two Clark High School teens were shot while on campus, shortly after school let out on Oct. 11. Both escaped with bullet wounds to their arms.

Villanueva ran with Tony Tejada to a stolen car waiting in a nearby apartment complex, but the car wrecked as they tried to drive off. Authorities said the pair stole a bike at knifepoint before being arrested moments later.

In the Oct. 2 shooting a rival gang member was shot in the arm and his girlfriend took a bullet to the back.

Tejada faces juvenile charges in the high school incident but was charged as an adult for the Oct. 2 shooting. Villanueva's formal sentencing is set for May 5.