Youth Guilty in Stabbing at School : Courts: A judge convicts the 16-year-old of attempted murder. The attack on a fellow student polarized the Canyon High campus.

A 16-year-old boy was found guilty of attempted murder Wednesday for stabbing a fellow Canyon High School student in December, an incident that polarized the school community and led to soul-searching discussions over what some parents said were tense race relations at the Santa Clarita campus.

The youth was somber as Judge Gary A. Polinsky delivered the verdict in the San Fernando Valley Juvenile Hall courtroom for the attempted murder charge with special allegations of use of a knife and attempt to cause great bodily injury.

Technically, the criminal complaint against the boy was “sustained,” the equivalent of a guilty verdict in the parlance of a juvenile court.

The youth, who is scheduled to be sentenced March 25, faces up to 13 years of confinement in the California Youth Authority or a juvenile probation camp.

The victim, 16-year-old Pat Butterfield, took the stand and showed the judge a one-inch horizontal scar from the stab wound on his upper abdomen and a 12-inch vertical scar from exploratory surgery. He received a punctured liver, a nicked diaphragm and a cut on his left palm in the Dec. 6 attack.

The victim said the trouble started as he walked past the youth’s car in the parking lot of a Taco Bell near the school during lunch. The youth gave him a challenging look, and Butterfield told the boy to get out of the car. When he did not, Butterfield punched him in the face through the open car window, he testified.

“He sped off, saying he was going to shoot me,” Butterfield said.

Three hours later, while Butterfield was waiting for his mother to pick him up in a school parking lot, the youth and two other boys approached him.

Butterfield testified that the boy said, “What did you hit me for? You’re going down,” before he and his companions began beating Butterfield with a metal pipe. The boy then stabbed Butterfield with a jackknife.

The boy later admitted stabbing Butterfield in the abdomen but denied saying “You’re going down,” a comment the judge cited as proof that the boy wanted to kill Butterfield. The boy’s attorney, Marc Berrenson, had argued that the attempted murder charge was inappropriate.

The stabbing created a furor on campus. The youth is Latino, and some parents and students argued vehemently that the school was awash in violence and racial tensions between Latino and Anglo students. Other parents and students countered that the accusations were blown out of proportion. Canyon High School is 76% Anglo and 19% Latino.

Authorities discounted persistent rumors that the attack was gang-related. “Though there were gang membership overtones, this was not a gang-on-gang retaliation case,” said prosecuting attorney Paula Gonzales.