4th Teenager Pleads Not Guilty in Videotaped Street Assaults
A Van Nuys youth pleaded not guilty Monday to a series of videotaped assaults with paint ball guns and baseball bats on San Fernando Valley bicyclists and pedestrians.
Javier Perez, 17, was the last of the four teenagers to plead not guilty to multiple charges of assault with a deadly weapon for the three-day rampage, which the defendants videotaped.
The tape, which prosecutors have played in court, shows the youths cruising streets in a car, picking off pedestrians and cyclists with baseball bats and paint ball guns--which fire pellets at up to 200 feet per second.
Some of the victims were shot in the face and their cries are audible on the tape, as are the youths’ jokes and laughter.
Perez and Anthony Skoblar will be tried as adults. Skoblar is now 18 but was 17 at the time of the attacks. Also charged are Ruffy Flores, 18, and Malcolm Boyd, 20.
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