Local News in Brief : Sentence in Slaying

A 17-year-old boy was sentenced Wednesday to California Youth Authority custody for his role in beatings in a Burbank park in which one transient was killed and another was severely injured.

Pasadena Juvenile Court Judge Carol J. Fieldhouse sentenced the Burbank teen-ager to 16 years to life in custody, but because he was prosecuted as a juvenile, the youth must be released on or before his 25th birthday. The teen-ager pleaded guilty in September to second-degree murder and assault with intent to do great bodily injury. A second defendant, a 16-year-old boy, has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder.

The victims of the beating in McCambridge Park were transient John M. Simpson, 33, who died about two weeks later, and William L. Stahl, 44, who remains hospitalized, prosecutors said.

When Fieldhouse ruled that the 17-year-old should not face trial as an adult, he said he believed that the younger boy had knowledge of martial arts and was responsible for “the lion’s share of the aggression.”