Boy Charged With Murder in Girl’s Death : Slaying: The youth, 17, allegedly shot his friend at point-blank range. He will be tried as a juvenile.

A 17-year-old Thousand Oaks boy who allegedly killed his girlfriend while brandishing a handgun was charged with murder Friday by prosecutors who said he should have known the potentially fatal consequences of his actions.

But in an unusual move, prosecutors will not seek to have the youth tried as an adult, citing his lack of criminal history and their belief that he did not intend to kill the girl, Jacqueline Reay, 16.

“He has no juvenile record, and it’s clearly not a first-degree murder,” Ventura County Deputy Dist. Atty. Donald C. Glynn said. “I think it’s appropriate that it remain in the Juvenile Court.”

Glynn, a veteran prosecutor of murder cases, acknowledged that the district attorney’s office has sought to try most juvenile murder defendants as adults.

“This is the first time we’ve done that in a while,” he said of the decision to keep the case in Juvenile Court. “It was my suggestion.”

The victim died Wednesday after the boy shot her in the eye with a 9-millimeter semiautomatic handgun at point-blank range, police said.

Glynn said the boy had been brandishing the gun and loading it and unloading it.

He is charged with one count of murder and two counts of brandishing a firearm. Glynn said prosecutors, who will seek a conviction on second-degree murder charges, expect to file additional counts against him.

“I think everyone would agree that pointing a gun at people and playing with it is a dangerous act,” the prosecutor said. “He did it a number of times, and finally what happened is what you would expect to happen. Somebody got shot.”

Authorities also disclosed that the boy’s father--the owner of the handgun used in the shooting--is a former police officer in Los Angeles County. The father, whose name was not released, was unaware that his son had the weapon, Sheriff’s Lt. Craig Husband said.

“The information I’m given is he obtained the gun without his father’s permission,” Husband said. A woman who answered the phone at the boy’s home declined to comment. She said the father did not live there.

Glynn said the charge against the boy is based on the concept of implied malice. Under that principle, prosecutors do not have to prove that the youth intended to murder Reay, Glynn said. Instead, they need only show that he committed an act likely to result in death.

The boy is scheduled to be arraigned Monday in Juvenile Court.