Boy Avoids Adult Trial in Slaying of Transient

A 16-year-old boy accused of helping a friend beat a homeless man to death and severely injure another transient in a Burbank park will be tried as a juvenile, a judge ruled Wednesday.

Pasadena Juvenile Judge Carol J. Fieldhouse said he decided against trying the boy as an adult because he felt the other boy, also 16, was responsible for “the lion’s share of the aggression” in the July 14 attack in McCambridge Park.

The other boy is an expert in martial arts and had the ability to deliver life-threatening blows, Fieldhouse said. A hearing to determine if he will be tried as an adult is scheduled for Sept. 10.

John M. Simpson, 33, was killed and William L. Stahl, 44, was wounded in that attack. Stahl remained in a coma in St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank.

The boys, Burbank residents, are being held in the Sylmar Juvenile Hall. Each has pleaded not guilty to one count of murder and one count of attempted murder.

Los Angeles County Deputy Dist. Atty. Edwin F. Greene argued during the two-day fitness hearing that the defendant should be tried as an adult because he was driven by the desire to get even for an alleged attack by transients on his brother’s girlfriend.

“I don’t accept that what happened with his relatives was burdening him like a time bomb that finally came to fruition,” Fieldhouse said, referring to the attack two years ago on the boy’s brother’s girlfriend. “I think they decided on the spot that they were disenchanted with transients in the park.”

Fieldhouse’s decision to try the boy as a juvenile means that, if the youth is convicted, he could be sentenced to the California Youth Authority--which could hold him until his 25th birthday. If he had been tried and convicted as an adult, he could have been sentenced to 15 years to life in prison.

The boys were arrested July 15 after witnesses provided a police artist with sketches of two people they saw attack the homeless men the night before, Deputy Dist. Atty. Antoinette Brown said.

They first were arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon, but one count each of attempted murder was later filed because of the seriousness of the attacks, Brown said. The murder charges were filed after Simpson died July 29.