Teen Pleads to Manslaughter in Stabbing : Courts: Sentencing set for Oak Park youth. Four others face trial in the death of 16-year-old Agoura Hills resident.

Oak Park teen-ager Chris Velardo, on the morning of his 18th birthday, pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter Thursday in the May stabbing death of a 16-year-old Agoura Hills resident.

One of five teen-agers charged in the death of James Farris III, Velardo changed his earlier plea of not guilty in a hearing in Malibu Municipal Court before Judge Lawrence J. Mira. He also pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit a robbery.

Velardo is scheduled for sentencing Nov. 28 and could face a maximum term of 12 years.

A trial for the four other defendants in the murder case, Jason Holland, 18, his younger brother Micah Holland, 15, both of Thousand Oaks; Brandon Hein, 18, of Oak Park and Tony Miliotti, 18, of Westlake Village, begins Oct. 6. Although only two of the defendants were adults at the time of the crime, prosecutors received approval to try all five of them as adults.

After new evidence was disclosed privately to defense attorneys in a hearing Sept. 15, Velardo and Miliotti’s lawyers asked to have their clients moved to separate jail facilities from the other three defendants for safety reasons. On Thursday afternoon, Mira denied a motion by Miliotti’s attorney to try his case separately.

Los Angeles County Deputy Dist. Atty. Jeffrey Semow said he agreed to the plea but that Velardo will not receive special favors in exchange for any testimony he could provide at the trial.

“This is in no way a deal for testimony,” Semow said outside court Thursday.

Semow said that Velardo sat in his parked pickup truck outside the home of Michael McLoren on Foothill Drive in Agoura Hills while his four friends went into McLoren’s clubhouse with the intent of stealing marijuana.

Once inside the clubhouse, the teen-agers demanded pot from McLoren and then started a fistfight with him, prosecutors say. Then McLoren was stabbed several times.

McLoren’s friend Farris--the son of a Los Angeles Police Department detective--had been lifting weights and hanging out with him all afternoon. Farris apparently tried to save his friend and got caught in the fray. He received two deep wounds to his torso and died later that night at a hospital.

Semow said Velardo apparently never left the car and was not directly involved with the murder.

“There is no evidence that he knew or intended that anybody would be injured,” Semow said. “Mr. Velardo remained in the truck while all of the other defendants went over the fence and into the fort.”

But because the murder was committed during an attempted robbery, prosecutors were able to charge Velardo with homicide.

Semow declined to say whether he plans to call Velardo as a witness during the trial for the other youths. Because Velardo is not scheduled for sentencing until late November, he could still invoke his Fifth Amendment rights and refuse to testify if called at the trial.