LAS VEGAS — Four Las Vegas teens accused of fatal assault on their high school classmate have agreed to plead guilty to manslaughter, meaning they will no longer be tried as adults, attorneys said Thursday.
The teens were originally charged as adults in January with second-degree murder and conspiracy in the November death of 17-year-old Jonathan Lewis Jr. A cellphone video of the fatal beating was shared on social media.
The deal, announced Thursday during a hearing before Clark County District Judge Tierra Jones, calls for the four to be sent to juvenile court and face an indefinite sentence in a juvenile detention center. The deal was first reported by the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
If any of the teens back out of the deal, all four will be re-arraigned in adult court, Deputy District Attorney John Giordani said.
“The offer depends on everyone’s acceptance,” Giordani said.
The Associated Press is not naming the students because they were minors at the time of the Nov. 1, 2023, attack.
The four were among nine teens arrested in connection with Lewis’ death. Lewis was attacked on Nov. 1 near the campus of Rancho High School, where they were all students. Authorities have said the students had arranged to meet in the alley to battle over a vape pen and wireless headphones that had been stolen from Lewis’ friend. Lewis died of his injuries six days later.
Attorney Robert Draskovich, who represents one of the four suspects, called the deadly fight a tragedy but said convicting the four students of murder as adults would have been a second tragedy.
“This negotiation will allow my client to finish high school, move on with his life and become a productive citizen,” Draskovich told The Associated Press on Thursday.
The attorney said he will ask at sentencing that his client be released from prison with credit for time already served. Draskovich acknowledged that his client was among those who kicked Lewis as he lay on the ground, but said a jury would have seen video footage showing at least one of the people in a group with Lewis holding a knife.
Mellisa Ready, Lewis’ mother, told KLAS-TV in Las Vegas on Thursday that she was “stunned” by the plea agreement. She said she had heard from the Clark County District Attorney’s office that the teens would plead guilty to murder in the adult court system.
Giordani declined to comment after Thursday’s hearing, but provided a statement to the AP from Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson’s office. It acknowledged Lewis’ mother’s comments and “the pain (she) is going through as she grieves the loss of her son.” But it said she had been briefed last week on the terms of the negotiations.
Wolfson’s office defended the case’s resolution as a balance between “thoughtful consideration of the glaring facts” and potential legal challenges prosecutors would face at trial.
The statement said the juvenile court “is best equipped to punish the defendants for their appalling behavior” while providing rehabilitation.
Teenager charged with murder in Nevada can be charged as an adult if they were 13 years or older when the crime occurred.
A detective investigating the case told a grand jury last year that cellphone and surveillance footage showed Lewis removing his red sweatshirt and punching one of the students, according to court records made public in January. The suspects then pulled Lewis to the ground and began punching, kicking and stomping on him, the detective said.
A student and a resident in the area carried Lewis, who was severely beaten and unconscious, back to campus after the fight, the transcripts said. School staff called 911 and attempted to help him.
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Sonner reported from Reno, Nevada