Boy Faces Manslaughter Charge in Mall Slaying

A 12-year-old boy accused of shooting to death a 12-year-old girl in a mall jammed with Christmas shoppers was charged with involuntary manslaughter Wednesday and ordered held without bail.

Deputy Public Defender Chris Hilger entered an innocent plea on behalf of his client, Juan Manuel Cardenas, and did not object to a prosecution request to keep the boy in Juvenile Hall. Hilger said Juan had been under close supervision by Juvenile Hall officials as a suicide risk. He said the boy had barely slept since the Monday evening shooting in the Mall of Orange.

The boy, Hilger said, keeps waking up in fits of “incredible horror at what he’s done. . . . When I talk to him, I get the feeling he’s only half there.

“He knows what he did. He knows he’s responsible,” Hilger added. “At least he’s struggling with that right now.”

Juan was charged in the shooting death of Jacalyn Calabrese, a friend from elementary school, in a mall crowded with holiday shoppers.

Witnesses said Juan had been showing off a .25-caliber pistol and its bullets for weeks and, just minutes before the shooting, held it to the temple of another girl, Keli Edwards, as a joke. Then he pointed the weapon at Jacalyn, who dared him to pull the trigger, apparently believing the gun was not real. He did, firing a single shot that killed her almost instantly.

Deputy Dist. Atty. John D. Conley said prosecutors decided to bring involuntary manslaughter charges because Juan was criminally negligent in playing with a gun he knew to be loaded.

Criminal negligence “is defined as a negligent act which is aggravated, reckless and gross,” Conley said. “And the horseplay with the gun, even for a 12-year-old, seems to be aggravated, reckless and gross.”

Involuntary manslaughter carries a maximum prison sentence of four years. Juan also was charged with assault with a deadly weapon for allegedly pointing the gun at Edwards, which also carries a four-year maximum penalty, and with using a gun to commit a felony, punishable by up to two years.

But both prosecution and defense attorneys said it was impossible to predict what the 12-year-old’s sentence might be if he were found guilty. Neither could recall a similar homicide case involving such a young defendant in Orange County.

The county’s chief juvenile defender questioned the need for criminal charges against Juan.

“They might file because they feel they have to,” said Dean Allen, supervising attorney for the public defender’s juvenile division. “A lot of times the D.A., if there’s a death, they feel some obligation to send a message to the community.”

Under juvenile law, prosecutors must prove that a defendant 14 or younger knew that what he did was wrong, Allen said. In Juan’s case, he said, that may not be clear.

“It’s fairly simple when you have a 12- or 13-year-old who goes in and steals something. Most kids know that’s wrong. And maybe he knew he wasn’t supposed to have a gun,” Allen said. “But it’s not clear he knew what he was doing. He shot at a real good friend.”

Statewide, only three 12-year-olds and one 10-year-old were arrested in homicide cases in California in 1988, according to the state attorney general’s Bureau of Criminal Statistics. The bureau could not provide information on the results of the charges.

Juan was handcuffed during the hearing before Superior Court Judge C. Robert Jameson and answered “yes” and “no” to the judge’s questions in a hoarse voice.

When he was brought into the courtroom, his mother ran over to kiss him, and his father put his arm around the boy. But court officials separated them, saying they would not be allowed to touch.

Hilger said Juan was carrying the gun in order to feel safe. Two of Juan’s classmates have said in interviews that Juan may have been carrying the gun because he wanted to impress a local gang, known as the Highland Street Crips. Orange police, however, said they were not familiar with the gang and had no evidence that Juan had any gang ties.

At the hearing, prosecutors asked the court to hold Juan without bail, saying they knew little of his background and feared he might flee to Mexico.

Hilger said he would not contest that decision until he had more information about the boy’s state of mind.

The victim’s father, Al Calabrese, said he has forgiven his daughter’s killer.

“How do you punish stupidity?” he said.

Calabrese said it is the gun owner who should be blamed for Jacalyn’s death. Police said they do not yet know where the boy got the gun.

‘A GOOD PERSON’--Juan Cardenas’ mother talks about her 12-year-old son in a conversation with columnist Dianne Klein. B1