15-Year-Old Pleads Guilty in Pizza Deliverer’s Slaying

The youngest person ever accused of murder in Superior Court pleaded guilty Thursday in the ambush slaying and robbery of a pizza deliveryman.

Tony Hicks, who was 14 when he was charged last year under a new law designed to be tougher on juvenile offenders, faces a sentence of 25 years to life in prison when he is sentenced May 28. He would remain in a California Youth Authority facility until age 25 and then be transferred to a state prison.

Hicks, now 15, admitted shooting Tariq Khamisa, 20, with a 9-millimeter semiautomatic handgun. Three accomplices--two teenagers tried in Juvenile Court and an 18-year-old tried in Superior Court--have been convicted in the Jan. 21, 1995, killing.

“There is nothing here to celebrate,” Dist. Atty. Paul Pfingst said after the guilty plea. “We do not celebrate putting teenagers into prison. Mr. Hicks should be looking forward to his first high school dance, not 25 years to life. But he didn’t give us any choice.”

A law that became effective Jan. 1, 1995, lowered from 16 to 14 the age at which someone accused of murder can be tried as an adult. After Hicks was charged, another teenager, in Orange County, was convicted of murder under the law.