3 Teenagers Get Life Terms in Fatal Stabbing

Ignoring 11th-hour pleas for mercy, a judge in Malibu Wednesday sentenced three teenagers to life in prison without parole for the stabbing death of a boy who came to a friend’s aid during a fight over marijuana.

Municipal Judge Lawrence J. Mira also sentenced the youngest of the four defendants, 16-year-old Micah Holland, to 29 years to life for his role in the May 22, 1995, slaying of Jimmy Farris.

As their families had feared, Jason Holland, Brandon Hein and Anthony Miliotti, all 19, got the maximum sentences under the law. Their lawyers filed immediate appeals.

The killing of 16-year-old Jimmy Farris, son of a former Los Angeles police detective, and the near murder of his 17-year-old friend Mike McLoren, took place at a makeshift backyard “fort,” where teenagers often gathered to work out with weights.

But McLoren was known to keep small amounts of marijuana in the ramshackle outbuilding, and prosecutors said that was behind the capital crime. The younger Holland’s sentence included four additional years for his part in the robbery of McLoren.

“I believe each of the defendants were active participants in the crime,” Mira told a hushed and packed courtroom of about 100 people. “I believe they planned it.” The defendants sat stone-faced.

The pronouncement followed three days of hearings, in which friends and family members said the young defendants should be given another chance at life. The parents of the victim said life without parole for the killers seemed fair enough to them, given that they would never see their child again.

Before the sentencing, Jim and Judy Farris spoke for more than 90 minutes, with separate presentations to the judge and the defendants. They tried to articulate the impact that the crime has had on their family.

“You have victimized us. You have victimized your own families,” said the tearful mother, who began by talking about the day her son was born.

The grieving father told the judge and others that he had “been wounded by this killing. And it’s a wound that just seems not to heal. My wife and I will never understand why you had to kill him. This was no accident . . . this was murder.”

Trembling and crying, Farris said he would “never forget Jason Holland’s casual courtroom demonstration showing how he killed my son.”

Turning to the other defendants, the former detective said, “And none of you tried to stop this crime. All of you were there.”