SIMI VALLEY : Boy Pleads Not Guilty to Murder
A 13-year-old Simi Valley boy charged with fatally stabbing one of his Valley View Junior High School classmates pleaded not guilty in Ventura County Superior Court on Friday.
Judge Steven Z. Perren set an April 18 trial for Phillip Hernandez, who will not be tried as an adult because he is under 16.
Phillip is charged with a single count of murder in the Feb. 1 death of 14-year-old Chad Patrick Hubbard, a popular student and member of the school baseball team.
Other students have said the two boys had a running feud that escalated a week before the stabbing when Hernandez took Chad’s baseball cap.
About a dozen of Chad’s relatives and friends appeared at Friday’s arraignment. Phillip’s mother, grandmother and an aunt were also present in court. Both families declined to comment afterward.
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