Teen Pleads Guilty to Role in Slaying During Car Theft : Courts: The 15-year-old didn’t pull the trigger but was a willing partner in gang’s plan that turned deadly, says prosecutor. He will be eligible for parole in seven years.

A 15-year-old boy has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder for his role in the slaying of a woman who was shot in the head because she refused to surrender her car to gang members.

Although Robert Rodriguez, 15, did not pull the trigger, he was a willing partner last Aug. 4 in a plan to steal a car to do a drive-by shooting in a rival gang’s turf, said Deputy Dist. Atty. John S. Anderson. The plan turned violent when Janet Bicknell, 49, refused to turn her car over to a group of young men in Westminster’s Bowling Green Park and was killed.

Just as his trial was to start Wednesday in Orange County Juvenile Court, Rodriguez decided to plead guilty to second-degree murder and conspiracy. While the teen-ager could be sentenced to the California Youth Authority facility until his 25th birthday, the plea will qualify him for early parole, his attorney said.

He will be eligible for parole in seven years.

Anderson said it is unfortunate that someone so young must face a decade behind bars. “But, the community is better for it in the long run,” he said, “because somebody--be it a young person--who has demonstrated his desire to part in gang activity has been taken off the street and will be off the street for a long time.”

According to court documents and testimony presented during the preliminary hearing, Rodriguez, along with Enrique Segoviano, 18; Antonio and Edel Gonzalez, 21 and 16; and Christopher Martinez, 18, had been drinking and painting graffiti when they decided to steal a car. Rodriguez was spray painting a wall when the gunman, allegedly Segoviano, killed Bicknell.

Martinez pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and agreed to testify against the others, who are scheduled for trial July 21, on murder charges, conspiracy and attempted robbery.