Fourth Youth Sentenced in Biehl Murder : Court: Like others found guilty in racially motivated slaying of Newport Beach woman in South Africa, he gets 18-year prison term.

A black youth was sentenced Tuesday to 18 years in prison for the racially motivated murder of a Newport Beach woman who was stabbed and stoned to death in a South African township nearly two years ago.

Supreme Court Judge Braam Lategan told the court that 19-year-old Ntombeko Peni had taken part in a “barbaric attack” on Amy Biehl, 26, a white Fulbright scholar. She was driving black friends home to Cape Town’s Guguletu township on Aug. 25, 1993, when a group of youths stopped her car, dragged her out into the street and beat and stabbed her.

Biehl’s father, Peter Biehl of Newport Beach, said he was gratified to see that “justice has been served” in South Africa.

“The fact that witnesses were able to come forward to say what they saw without fear of intimidation shows how far the system has progressed,” said Biehl, 52. “It’s really nice to see that once again the South African system of justice works.”

Three other members of the radical, black segregationist Pan Africanist Congress were each sentenced last October to 18 years in prison after also being found guilty of murdering Biehl.

Peni admitted he was at the scene of the murder but denied taking part.

But the judge disagreed, saying: “You enthusiastically and wholeheartedly took part. You must take responsibility for every knife thrust, kick, punch and blow with a brick.”

In sentencing Peni, Lategan took into consideration that Peni is a first-time offender and is young. However, the judge also pointed out the circumstances of the crime and its gruesome nature and violence.

“It boggles the mind to think there is still a member of the Homo sapiens who will sink to such depths to kill an innocent person for reasons alone of her skin color,” Lategan said. “There is no doubt the mob intended to kill. It was a barbaric attack that led to the massive injuries and eventual death of a defenseless woman.”

Peni showed no emotion as the sentence was handed down, and there was no reaction from the handful of people in the public gallery.

Biehl was on the last day of a 10-month research fellowship in South Africa when she was attacked. Since her death, her family has traveled to South Africa and become active in the country’s political issues. Biehl’s parents have set up a memorial fund in honor of their daughter and the contributions she made to South Africa.

Biehl had been educating South Africans about voting procedures before the nation’s first all-race election in April, 1994.

Peter Biehl said Tuesday that he and his family plan to return to South Africa next month to oversee the distribution of grants from the Amy Biehl Foundation.

Times staff writer Lily Dizon contributed to this report from Orange County.