Teen enters plea in shooting, will serve at least four years

Kim Smith

Monday, May 15, 2000 | 11:21 a.m.

A 16-year-old boy involved in two gang-related shootings, one outside Clark High School, has entered a plea agreement that may allow him to be released from prison in four years.

Although Tony Tejada did not admit guilt, he conceded Friday that Chief Deputy District Attorney Ed Kane has enough evidence to convict him of battery with the use of a deadly weapon and that it was gang-related.

The teenager originally faced two counts of attempted murder with a deadly weapon, two counts of battery with the use of a deadly weapon and one count of discharging a firearm into a structure. All of the charges further alleged they were gang-related, which stiffens the potential sentences.

As a result of the plea agreement, Tejada will be sentenced to four two- to 15-year prison sentences on June 22. However, two of the sentences will be served at the same time, leaving a term of four to 30 years in prison.

Kane said Tejada and Maynor Villanueva were members of a splinter group of a Las Vegas gang and on Oct. 2 one or both of them fired shots at a house on Magnolia Avenue where a rival gang member lived. Two teens were shot, one of whom had to have a spleen removed.

Nine days later, Kane said, Villanueva and Tejada were together when Villanueva opened fire on a crowd gathered outside Clark High School. Two students escaped with wounds in their arms.

Had Tejada not pleaded guilty, Kane said, he would have faced a life sentence because of a new law that stiffens penalties for a nonfatal shooting on school grounds.

Villanueva, 18, has also entered plea agreements in both cases. He faces life in prison with or without the possibility of parole in the school shooting and four to 20 years in the Magnolia Avenue shooting. He is scheduled to be sentenced later this week.

"The plea enables Mr. Tejada to get out before his 21st birthday. So hopefully he can lead a crime-free existence from now on if he so chooses," Gregory Denue, Tejada's attorney, said.

Kim Smith covers courts for the Sun. She can be reached at (702) 259-2321 or by e-mail at kimberly@lasvegassun.com.