Teen-Ager Sentenced in Slaying of Burbank Youth

An El Segundo teen-ager was sentenced to 18 years to life in state prison Monday for shooting two Burbank youths following a raucous night of drinking and carousing for groups from both cities.

Torrance Superior Court Judge John P. Shook agreed to allow Jeffrey Dobrovolny, 18, to serve his time in the California Youth Authority. Dobrovolny may be released by the time he is 25. He was 17 at the time of the shooting.

Jurors convicted him of second-degree murder and attempted murder for killing 17-year-old Jeramy Perales and wounding Jorge Castellano, 21, during a multi-car chase through at least three South Bay cities.

In a written statement to the court, Dobrovolny insisted that other El Segundo youths were armed that night and that he still believes that he did not fire the shots that killed Perales.

According to testimony during the trial, Perales, Castellano and four friends--some of whom are affiliated with a North Hollywood street gang--encountered as many as 25 El Segundo youths who had gathered at an all-night sandwich shop on Imperial Highway after a high school basketball game Feb. 15, 1991.

Problems flared at the shop, where the groups began hurling beer bottles or cans at each other. At one point, a brief foot chase broke out involving members of both groups.

Outnumbered, four of the Burbank youths, including Perales and Castellano, fled in a pickup truck. Several carloads of El Segundo youths soon set out to look for the truck.

Before joining the search, Dobrovolny ran home to fetch a .22-caliber rifle given him as a gift by his grandfather.

When the car he was riding in came across the pickup truck on Imperial, Dobrovolny pointed the rifle out the window and fired several shots.

His defense attorney, Charles (Ted) Mathews, said Dobrovolny fired over the youths’ heads; Deputy Dist. Atty. Al Botello said Perales was struck in the arm during the volley.

During the high-speed chase that ensued, several more shots were fired. Mathews contended that other El Segundo youths were also armed and firing shots during the chase.

When the chase ended at a Manhattan Beach gas station, Perales had been struck again, this time in the chest, and lay dying in the bed of the pickup truck. Castellano, who leaped from the truck and stabbed at one of the pursuing drivers with a box cutter, had been shot in the stomach.

Dobrovolny buried the rifle in his back yard and fled to Hawaii. Several days later, he flew home to turn himself in and told detectives that he thought that he might have shot someone in the stomach.