4 Neo-Nazi Teen-Agers Plead Guilty in Hate Crime : Attacks: The youths were part of skinhead gang that beat a Chinese-American teen-ager unconscious. Two others involved will be tried as adults.
Four teen-agers pleaded guilty Monday in Juvenile Court to their part in a hate crime attack on a Chinese-American youth and two white friends in Fullerton, the district attorney’s office said.
In a related development, Superior Court Judge Robert B. Hutson ruled that two other teen-agers involved in the unprovoked attack on July 7 in Gilman Partin Park should be tried as adults.
The three victims were surrounded by more than a dozen skinhead members of the white supremacist Confederate Federation of America, who grilled them on their racial views and then beat them, police said.
The attackers, clad in black leather jackets and boots, shouted racial slurs and gave Nazi salutes as they began the attack, police said. Gang specialists said that the gang is affiliated with the White Aryan Resistance, a national white supremacist group.
The two white victims escaped with minor bruises, but the 17-year-old Chinese-American victim was beaten unconscious. A cut on his ear required stitches.
Two of those subsequently arrested for the attack were part of a skinhead gang who had harassed a black family several hours before in Placentia, police said. Others were considered suspects in a Huntington Beach stabbing.
Because those involved in the incident are juveniles, Deputy Dist. Atty. Gary S. Paer declined to identify them by name. Those who pleaded guilty Monday were:
* A 16-year-old from Huntington Beach. He pleaded guilty to assault with a deadly weapon and violation of the state’s hate crimes statute. He also pleaded guilty to an unrelated robbery in Huntington Beach. He will be sentenced Oct. 2. Hutson indicated that he faces a maximum sentence of six years with the California Youth Authority.
* A 17-year-old from La Habra. He pleaded guilty to assault with a deadly weapon and use of a firearm, as well as to his involvement in the same unrelated robbery. He will be sentenced Oct. 2. The judge indicated he faces a maximum of five years with the CYA.
* A 17-year-old from Highland, Calif. He pleaded guilty to assault with a deadly weapon. The judge sentenced him to nine months in Juvenile Hall, plus probation and agreement to avoid all contact with the gang.
* A 14-year-old from Whittier. He pleaded guilty to assault with a deadly weapon and will be sentenced Oct. 21. The judge gave no indication of his sentence.
Hutson also ruled that two other 17-year-olds involved in the attack, one from Whittier and another from Anaheim, should be tried as adults in Superior Court on charges of assault with a deadly weapon and violation of the state’s hate crimes statute. He set a preliminary hearing for Oct. 10 in North Orange County Municipal Court.
Two other defendants pleaded guilty on Aug. 28. A 17-year-old boy from Stanton pleaded guilty to three counts of assault with a deadly weapon. A 17-year-old boy from Garden Grove pleaded guilty to assault with a deadly weapon. Hutson set sentencing for Thursday and indicated that they each face nine months in Juvenile Hall, probation and prohibition of association with the gang.
On Aug. 12, a 17-year-old boy from Anaheim was found guilty of two counts of assault with a deadly weapon in Juvenile Court. Sentencing was set for Dec. 16.
The Chinese-American victim, an honors graduate from Sunny Hills High School in Fullerton, has recovered and is now attending UC Berkeley.
In an interview after the attack, he said “it was pretty much a no-way-out situation. . . . What freaks me out isn’t the fact that I got beat up, but that I got jumped by Nazi skinheads so close to where you live.”
A 10th defendant, a 15-year-old from Whittier, is scheduled for a pretrial hearing Oct. 16.
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