2 Youths Accused in Drag-Race Fatality Face 5-Month Term

Two teen-agers accused of engaging in a drag race that the prosecution claims resulted in the death of a mother of five will be sentenced to no more than five months in juvenile detention, a judge said Wednesday.

Superior Court Judge Luis Cardenas said he had decided to set such a maximum on the sentence after reading Probation Department reports on Jeffrey Thomas and Randy Craft, both 18 and both of Huntington Beach, and after talking with their lawyers and the prosecutor.

Cardenas then barred the press and public from his court for the sentencing hearing for Thomas and Craft, saying that the law required him to close the court to the public if a defendant in a Juvenile Court hearing requested it.

Could Last Several Days

Lawyers said the hearing was likely to last until Monday or Tuesday.

Craft and Thomas, seniors at Huntington Beach High School who have been free on their own recognizance, were originally charged with second-degree murder in the death of Gloria Tolentino Chang, 48, of Fountain Valley.

Cardenas dismissed the murder charge last November, ruling that previous court decisions prohibited charging drivers with second-degree murder if they were not under the influence of alcohol or drugs. Craft and Thomas then pleaded no contest to vehicular manslaughter.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Michael Maguire, the prosecutor, refused to comment on Cardenas’ statement on a maximum five-month term.

Maguire said “it’s a very aggravated case, there’s no doubt about that,” but he declined to say if he would request the maximum sentence permitted under the circumstances--a three-year commitment to the state Youth Authority. Other lawyers said such a commitment would be unlikely because neither teen-ager has a prior criminal record.

Chang’s husband, Elmer, a civil engineer, said Wednesday that when it came to deciding how much time, if any, Craft and Thomas should spend in jail, “I’ll just leave it up to the courts. I’m not going to say (the amount of time in custody is) too much, too little or what.”

Mrs. Chang’s sister, Genevieve Victorino of Fountain Valley, hinted that she would prefer that the teen-agers receive longer sentences, but she said she wanted to hear the evidence produced by the hearing and listen to Cardenas’ verdict before making any statements. Victorino was allowed to remain in the court for the hearing.

Defense Denies Racing

James S. Egar, Craft’s attorney, said evidence to be produced at the sentencing hearing “is not going to show that there was a drag race, and that the speeds which the Huntington Beach police and later the California Highway Patrol (investigators) said the boys were going were not accurate.”

Police said Craft and Thomas were traveling at least 80 m.p.h. on Adams Street near Newland Street in Huntington Beach in the early afternoon of Dec. 2, 1983. Investigators said Mrs. Chang started to turn onto Newland when her car was struck by Thomas’ auto and seconds later by Craft’s.

Police said the impact hurled Mrs. Chang’s car about 375 feet. She was pronounced dead at Fountain Valley Community Hospital half an hour after the accident.

Egar said he believed Craft and Thomas were going home from school independently of each other and were going at most a little over 60 m.p.h.