Cases Against Pair to Be Consolidated

Charges against a teen-age couple accused of shooting the girl’s 34-year-old mother, fleeing to the San Francisco Bay Area and shooting at Northern California law enforcement officers will be consolidated into a single case, a Ventura County prosecutor said Monday.

Both juveniles had previously been charged by Ventura County officials with attempted murder, conspiracy to commit murder and auto theft. The boy, who prosecutors allege fired the small caliber handgun at Beverford, also was charged with the use of a firearm and infliction of great bodily injury, Deputy Dist. Atty. Matthew J. Hardy said.

They will face additional charges of shooting at an occupied vehicle, assault on police officers and driving a stolen vehicle stemming from their Northern California arrest, Hardy said Monday.

“It is our intention as to the male, who is over 16, that we will try him as an adult,” the prosecutor said. “Ultimately he could get 15 (years) to life or more.”

Catherine Beverford of El Rio survived four shots to the head in a March 7 attack by her 13-year-old daughter and the 17-year-old boy, investigators said. The couple drove the woman to the Ventura County Medical Center emergency room and then fled in Beverford’s van, officials said.

The names of the suspects were not released because of their ages.

Hardy said he will ask the court to try the boy, believed to be from Santa Barbara, as an adult at a hearing scheduled for April 13.

“In a case like this, the presumption is that he’s unfit (to be tried as a minor) because of the severity of the crime,” Hardy said.