CALIFORNIA IN BRIEF : SAN JOSE : 6th-Grader Admits Killing Playmate

A sixth-grader has admitted that he fatally shot a playmate. The 11-year-old boy also admitted battery and threatening others during neighborhood bullying incidents, Juvenile Court authorities said this week. In a plea-bargaining arrangement, a felony charge of involuntary manslaughter involving the use of a firearm was “sustained” against the boy, Santa Clara County prosecutors said. Three misdemeanor counts, involving separate incidents of threatening his own sister with a weapon, disturbing the peace (fighting with other children) and battery were also sustained. Judge John T. Ball set a Feb. 20 disposition hearing for the boy, who could receive a maximum sentence of six years and five months in the California Youth Authority. The involuntary manslaughter charge stemmed from the death Aug. 2, 1989, of Carmella Aldama, 11. She was shot when the boy brandished a .22-caliber rifle in his parents’ bedroom, police said.