SAN FERNANDO : Youth to Serve 10 Years in Killing at Reseda High
A Juvenile Court commissioner Wednesday sentenced a 15-year-old Panorama City boy to nearly 24 years in prison for fatally shooting a 17-year-old schoolmate, but under state law the boy can only be incarcerated until his 25th birthday.
“This law was written by people who don’t know what’s going on on the streets,” said San Fernando Valley Juvenile Court Commissioner Jack Gold, adding that the sentence he imposed “means nothing in the scheme of things.”
The youth, whose name is being withheld because of his age, will serve less than 10 years for killing Micheal Ensley on the Reseda High School campus on Feb. 22.
During the trial, witnesses testified that the shooting occurred after the teen-ager and Ensley, whom police said did not know each other but were members of rival graffiti-tagging crews, exchanged looks and words near Ensley’s locker.
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