Alleged Leader of Thieves Charged in Boy’s Death : Crime: Police say the Reseda man recruited young people to steal for him. The youth, 13, was killed during a shop break-in.

A man authorities say recruited young boys into a theft ring was charged Friday in the death of a 13-year-old who was fatally injured when glass from a window at a shop he had broken into fell and sliced open his neck.

Julio Grassano, 23, of Reseda pleaded not guilty in Van Nuys Municipal Court to charges of second-degree murder, child endangerment and burglary in the death Wednesday of Donald Kenneth Saravia. Grassano was being held without bail.

The boy died at Northridge Hospital Medical Center where he had been dropped off by Grassano shortly after being injured during an early morning break-in at an appliance store, Los Angeles police said.

Donald, an eighth-grader at Portola Junior High School in Tarzana, was fatally injured when glass shards rained down on him as he tried to pull a television through the broken front window of Tip Top TV & Appliances in Reseda about 1 a.m., investigators said. The jagged glass sliced open one of the boy’s carotid arteries, which carry blood from the heart to the head.

Grassano was parked a short distance from the store and took the injured boy to the hospital. Investigators assisted in tracing Grassano by a hospital security guard who wrote down the license plate number of Grassano’s car.

Authorities revealed few details but did say Grassano was charged with the three offenses because he was responsible for the boy’s actions. “He caused a child to be in a life-threatening situation,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Phillip H. Rabichow said.

Police are continuing an investigation into how Grassano allegedly recruited Donald and other young boys to steal for him. Police said Grassano has a criminal record dating to when he was a juvenile.

During Grassano’s arraignment Friday, Deputy Dist. Atty. David Campbell argued against bail, saying that other youths will be witnesses against Grassano and could be in danger if he is free.

Campbell declined to say how many boys were involved.