15-Year-Old Is Convicted in Shooting Near School : Courts: He may spend 10 years in a Youth Authority facility for firing on a student outside Chatsworth High. Judge denounces graffiti vandalism.

A 15-year-old Sylmar boy was found guilty of attempted murder Monday for shooting another teen-ager who was waiting outside Chatsworth High School for his mother to take him to his part-time job.

The Sylmar teen-ager, who was with other youths in two cars in search of a rival “tagging crew” prior to shooting Gabriel Gettleson, 17, on Dec. 15, faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in a California Youth Authority facility when he is sentenced July 11. Gettleson, who was shot three times, eventually recovered from his wounds.

In announcing his finding, San Fernando Valley Juvenile Court Judge Morton Rochman used the occasion to denounce tagging crews--groups of youths who spray-paint graffiti--as veiled gang members.

“The facts in this case should dispel the myth and illusion that taggers are simply mischievous kids or misguided artists,” Rochman said. “They are, in fact, gang members not reluctant to (use) violence.”

Rochman sustained the petition--the equivalent of a guilty finding in adult court--charging the Sylmar teen-ager with attempted murder with the special allegations of great bodily injury and using a gun. The youth was also found guilty of aggravated assault, attempted robbery and two counts of robbery.

If he had been tried as an adult, the teen-ager would have faced a maximum sentence of life plus 12 years in prison on the attempted-murder count alone, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Bernadette de Barajas.

Under state law, a juvenile must be at least 16 at the time the crime is committed to be tried as an adult. Also, minors can be incarcerated only until their 25th birthday.

During the trial--which began in April, but was continued several times at the request of the defense--Los Angeles Police Detective Kenneth Crocker testified that the defendant confessed to the shooting and to robbing two teen-agers, one in front of Polytechnic High School in Sun Valley and the other immediately before confronting Gettleson.

Crocker said that the defendant told police that after he and his friends could not find a rival tagging crew, they decided to start “taxing fools,” which the teen-ager said meant robbing people.

After taking a coat from a boy at Polytechnic High School, the defendant and his friends drove to Chatsworth High School. There the teen-ager and a 17-year-old boy grabbed a backpack from a youth who was sitting on a bench near Gettleson.

The two teen-agers then tried to take Gettleson’s backpack. A struggle over the backpack ensued between Gettleson and the 17-year-old, who then hit Gettleson in the chest with the backpack.

Gettleson testified that the defendant then pulled out a gun hidden in his sleeve. Gettleson said he thought it was a toy and tried to slap the gun away. The defendant then shot him three times.

Gettleson underwent two surgeries to remove three .22-caliber bullets from his chest, shoulder and hip, and was hospitalized for close to three weeks. The family has since moved out of the area.

The defendant’s attorney, Deputy Public Defender Albert M. Meister, argued that his client did not intend to kill Gettleson, but rather that he shot “impulsively” after Gettleson tried to slap the gun away.

Meister sought to have charges reduced to attempted manslaughter.

The defendant’s parents, who separated about seven months prior to the shooting, testified that their marital problems had caused their son to be depressed, moody and angry and that he was in counseling at the time of the shooting.

The 17-year-old who hit Gettleson with the backpack is being tried as an adult as an accomplice to the shooting.

In January, a 17-year-old from Burbank was sentenced to a youth camp after being found guilty in juvenile court of driving the getaway car.