Teen-Ager Pleads No Contest in Brawl : Thousand Oaks: Youth faces up to eight years in prison for his role in ’94 melee that injured three Westlake High students.

After a series of setbacks in a high-profile Thousand Oaks gang case, prosecutors won a conviction Wednesday when a 17-year-old pleaded no contest in connection with shooting a Westlake High School football player.

John Yi, a high school junior being tried as an adult, was convicted of one count of shooting at an occupied vehicle and one count of possessing a loaded firearm on a school campus.

The former Westlake High student, who no longer lives in Ventura County, will face up to eight years in prison at his March 10 sentencing.

Yi is one of five defendants charged in a Feb. 3, 1994, brawl at North Ranch Park that left two football players hospitalized and a third one, Jarad Kline, slightly injured from gunshot wounds.

Deputy Dist. Atty. John Vanarelli said Yi fired a round that grazed Kline, who was inside a truck at the time. Yi has maintained he shot only to disperse a raucous crowd that numbered more than 50.

The case has been troublesome for prosecutors since its inception. The defendant accused of shooting the other two football players was acquitted. And the case against two other key defendants is on hold because the suspects apparently have fled the country.

The final defendant, a 17-year-old Orange County youth, is set to go to trial March 15. William Huang is charged with assault and aiding and abetting a shooting.

In exchange for Yi’s plea, prosecutors said they will dismiss charges of assault and one of discharging a firearm in a grossly negligent manner.

Yi, wearing a blue sports coat and tie, appeared in court with Soo Yi, his father. The defendant declined to comment as he left the Hall of Justice, but his attorney said Yi is pleased to settle the case.

“He’s glad that the most serious charges have been dismissed, and he’s glad that the case is over,” attorney William T. Graysen said.

Yi would have faced only one additional year in prison had he been convicted on all four original criminal counts, Vanarelli said.

Neither Kline nor his parents could be reached for comment. “It’s been a year now, and I’m sure the victim is probably happy to have the case disposed of without having to come to court and testify,” said Vanarelli.

“It was not worth dragging all these minors in to testify,” he said. “Even if we did win, it’s not worth the cost to the public.”

Graysen said Yi hopes Acting Superior Court Judge Bruce A. Clark will grant him probation. Vanarelli said prosecutors would make a recommendation on whether Yi should go to prison after a probation background report is completed.

Yi has learned his lesson from the incident, and does not deserve to go to prison, Graysen said.

The brawl started when Westlake student James Lee and football player Curtis Simmons agreed to an after-school fistfight, according to court testimony. Lee and about 20 supporters assaulted Simmons and his friends with gunfire, sticks, boards, bats and metal rods.

Graysen acknowledged outside court that Yi had arranged the fight between Lee--who with his brother Frank is one of the two fugitives in the case--and Simmons.

But after some of Lee’s friends began firing shots at boys in Simmons’ group, Yi fired his gun into the air to break up the brawl so Simmons would not get killed, Graysen claimed. A no-contest plea is equivalent to admitting guilt, prosecutors said. Yi’s plea of possessing a loaded firearm stemmed from an incident in which he had a gun on campus several days before the melee, officials said.