WOODLAND HILLS : Man Gets 8 Years for Role in Auto Theft
A Pacoima man was sentenced to eight years in prison Monday after pleading no contest to charges stemming from his role in helping another man steal a car from a parking lot at El Camino Real High School.
Derrick Johnson, 29, pleaded no contest to aiding a felony and unlawfully driving a vehicle without permission, Deputy Dist. Atty. Mitchel J. Harris said.
Johnson immediately was sentenced by Van Nuys Superior Court Judge Michael R. Hoff.
Co-defendant Leon Blunt, 37, of Los Angeles, is scheduled to go on trial Wednesday. He is charged with assault with a deadly weapon for allegedly attempting to run down school security guard Aaron Mengazzi, who shot him in the leg.
Prosecutor Harris said the incident occurred shortly before 11 a.m. on March 9, when two students saw a man trying to break into a friend’s car and called the school police.
Johnson already had left--in the stolen car they’d driven to the school--and Blunt allegedly was trying to drive the student’s car away when Mengazzi stepped in front of him, Harris said.
Mengazzi told police he fired his gun when the suspect bore down on him in the car. Blunt then allegedly crashed the car into a barrier.
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