Youth Who Took Class Hostage Gets 5 Years
A former San Gabriel High School student who two years ago held 60 classmates hostage with a semiautomatic rifle was sentenced Friday to five years in state prison.
Jeffrey Lyne Cox, 19, who authorities said had threatened to kill someone if four large pizzas and sodas were not delivered, had faced a possible life term. But a Pasadena Superior Court jury deadlocked on the most serious charges--seven counts of kidnaping and three counts of assault with a deadly weapon.
Cox pleaded no contest after Judge Terry Smerling promised a sentence not to exceed 10 years, eight months. The incident ended when classmates wrestled the gun away from Cox.
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