Vista Athlete Gets Year for Attack : Victim Was Partly Blinded by ‘Cheap Shot’ After Party

A Vista High School football star who pleaded guilty last month to mayhem for beating and partly blinding a Fallbrook teen-ager was sentenced Tuesday to a year in County Jail and placed on five years’ probation by a judge who described his offense as “an exceedingly serious crime.”

Marc Jones, 18, dressed in jail garb, was overcome with tears as he entered from a back hallway the Vista courtroom of Superior Court Judge Anthony Joseph and saw about 75 friends and supporters. He spent much of the hour hearing with his head cradled in his hands, quietly crying.

Jones’ defense attorney, David Thompson, said community support for his client speaks well for the teen-ager’s future and the respect he still has among friends, despite his crime.

But Deputy Dist. Atty. Paul Myers suggested instead that the courtroom showing for Jones was an indication of the kind of intimidating force Jones could muster.

“It would be pretty tough to be a teen-ager in Vista with this crowd against you,” Myers said.

The prosecutor likened Jones to “the leader of the pack” that outnumbered and beat victims for retaliation.

The 6-foot-1, 180-pound Jones, who was a running back on the All-CIF first team last season and won all-state football honors as well, had been destined for the University of Colorado on an $11,000-a-year football scholarship. But university officials in Boulder revoked the scholarship after Jones’ guilty plea to the felony charge.

Thompson asked Joseph to sentence Jones to only six months in jail so he could enter a college in January.

“I can’t justify the offense and I don’t, and neither does Mr. Jones,” Thompson told the judge.

“But even good people on TV are violent. We have desensitized violence in this community, and even good citizens are violent, and we applaud those people,” Thompson said, referring to the television series “Simon & Simon.”

But the victim’s mother, Kathleen Hoffman, who spoke briefly before the judge, said Jones should be sentenced to the full year because “my son has lost a year at school because of his eye.”

Attack Called ‘Cheap Shot’

Joseph characterized Jones’ attack on 17-year-old Todd Harvey on Aug. 29 as a “cheap shot” because the victim was surrounded, outnumbered and pummeled by Jones and at least three other young men.

Jones made no statement at his sentencing Tuesday. But in his presentencing statement to his probation officer, the youth said:

“I was stupidly immature during my last year of high school, became involved with the wrong people, never intended to hurt anyone and want to prove to my family that I’m worthy of their confidence. I’m sorry I’m here (and) will never be back in front of this court if I’m given a second chance.”

The beating nearly a year ago was sparked at a Vista party when a girl complained that she had been pushed or struck by Harvey, her former boyfriend.

Ten or more people, including Jones, then went to Harvey’s home about 2 a.m. and waited near the street as two girls went to the youth’s front door and enticed him outside. He was attacked by Jones and three others.

Jones, who was arrested after Harvey picked his picture out of a school yearbook, later admitted that he struck Harvey and injured his eye. Authorities allege that Jones struck Harvey with a rock or stone, but Thompson argued that Harvey might have fallen on a rock during the fight.

Today, Harvey can see only shades of black and white from his right eye, and doctors are unsure whether he will fully recover his sight.

Arrested in Second Beating

While awaiting trial on the mayhem charge, Jones was arrested in March on suspicion of breaking the nose of another teen-ager in a fight that pitted Jones and three others against the victim, who was alone.

But, under a plea bargain, charges against Jones in the second incident were dropped in exchange for Jones’ guilty plea to the initial charge of mayhem, defined as maliciously disabling a person. The district attorney’s office also agreed not to ask that Jones be sentenced to state prison, but that he receive a maximum of one year in County Jail instead.

If Jones had been convicted in a trial, he could have been sentenced to eight years in prison.

Christopher McMahon, who also participated in the March attack, was sentenced by Joseph on Tuesday to 60 days in jail.

In sentencing McMahon, Joseph compared his and Jones’ attacks to assaults on students last year by San Dieguito High School athletes, several of whom also were sentenced to jail.

“I’m very bothered . . . that athletes are coming together, ganging up and then battering other individuals,” Joseph said. “Mr. Jones is blessed with incredible athletic ability. He has a second blessing--all the people who in this courtroom raised their hands in support of him.”

Nonetheless, the judge said, Jones pleaded guilty to “an exceedingly serious crime. The violent behavior is a matter of great concern.”

After sentencing Jones, Joseph said, “I hope you will do with your life what they (supporters) believe you can accomplish.”

Thompson said outside the courtroom that he believes Jones’ role in the two attacks were “mischaracterized” and that Jones may have been prosecuted because “certain crimes become politically charged at certain times.”

“With the San Dieguito publicity,” he said, “kids are getting caught up in this dragnet.”

Thompson said he expects Jones to be out of jail within eight months and said several colleges, which he declined to name, are interested in recruiting him to play football.