Youth, 15, Sent to Prison in Killing of Classmate

A computer analyst’s 15-year-old son, who shot to death a Glassell Park junior high school classmate for wearing a jersey carrying the name of a rival gang, was sentenced in an Eastlake Juvenile courtroom Friday to 17 years to life imprisonment. Because the youth is a minor, he will be set free at the age of 25 if he is not paroled before then, attorneys in the case said. The youth confessed to shooting Mark Iwashita, 14, at point-blank range on Aug. 8, the day after Iwashita wore an “Atwater-13” jersey to Washington Irving Junior High School. While the convicted youth’s father, who works for IBM, and his mother and brother stood by, Judge Jaime Corral told the teen-ager that he was “fortunate that your parents are more stable than most families that come to this court. Because of your age and the support of your family, there is hope for you.”