Huntington Beach Teen Who Killed Friend Sentenced to 20 Years to Life

A Huntington Beach teen-ager was sentenced Friday to 20 years to life in prison for shooting his 14-year-old friend between the eyes, tying a plastic bag around the youth’s head and then dumping the body in a trash bin.

Louis Richard Villa, 19, was convicted last month of second-degree murder for the Dec. 26, 1992, slaying of Nicholas Smith, described by his friends as a “gentle giant” who looked older than his age since he stood over six feet tall and weighed more than 200 pounds.

Orange County Superior Court Judge Jean M. Rheinheimer sentenced Villa to the maximum prison term after listening to an emotional plea from Smith’s mother, Linda, who said her life has been shattered since losing her son one day after Christmas.

The circumstances of Smith’s murder remain somewhat of a mystery.

Villa was 18 and worked as an unarmed security guard in Anaheim at the time of the shooting. He originally told police that Smith died during a game of Russian roulette.

But Villa, who was smaller in stature than his younger friend, also told police that he grabbed a gun after Smith broke into his home and refused to leave, according to the sentencing report. Villa said he believed Smith was lunging at him when he shot the teen-ager between the eyes, the report said.

Villa told authorities he could not recall how he managed to move Smith’s body from his Huntington Beach home to a Santa Ana trash bin where the corpse was discovered by a sanitation worker.

According to the sentencing report prepared by the Orange County Probation Department, however, there were rumors that Villa paid Smith several hundred dollars for weapons that were never delivered.