SAN FERNANDO VALLEY : Youth Pleads Not Guilty in Slaying at Reseda High

A 15-year-old Panorama City boy accused of fatally shooting a schoolmate at Reseda High School pleaded not guilty Tuesday in San Fernando Valley Juvenile Court to charges of murder and attempted robbery.

Robert Heard, who was arrested last week for the shooting death of Michael Shean Ensley, 17, is also charged with assault with a deadly weapon and having a loaded weapon on a school campus.

Because he is being tried as a juvenile, the maximum sentence he faces is confinement in a California Youth Authority facility until he turns 25. Under state law, only juveniles 16 years or older may be tried as adults. Heard, who remains in custody, faces trial in juvenile court on April 9.

Heard’s court-appointed attorney, Sheldon Brown, said he has not had an opportunity to fully interview his client. But Brown said he believes that there was a verbal altercation between Heard and Ensley, and that the shooting was “a spur of the moment thing.”