Ex-Honor Student Sent to Prison for Stabbing

A one-time honor student from La Colonia who stabbed two Rio Mesa students during a lunch break last year was denied probation and sentenced to five years in state prison.

Eric Padilla, 18, pleaded guilty last August to two charges of assault with a deadly weapon for stabbing Augustine Medina, then 14, in the back, and Juan Mascote, then 16, in the leg. Medina suffered a collapsed lung in the incident last spring.

Padilla testified that he was walking on campus with a friend last March when they encountered a group that began yelling gang slogans at them. A fight broke out and Padilla drew his knife.

Ventura County Judge Bruce Clark on Wednesday rejected defense attorney Timothy Quinn’s request for probation for the juvenile, giving Padilla the minimum possible prison sentence.

Quinn lamented that such a bright youth from La Colonia--who came from a good family, did well in school, and stayed away from gangs--is ending up in state prison.

“You know what’s a shame?” he said. “Kids from Colonia get victimized by kids from Rio Mesa High School” after they are bused there, he said.

He said Padilla started at Rio Mesa as an honor student with regular attendance and a good attitude, but that because he lived in La Colonia, he was threatened on campus. Eventually he dropped out.

Quinn said Padilla testified in an earlier hearing that he couldn’t consider participating in after-school sports because it was not safe.

“His experience as a student at Rio Mesa led him and others to know they were in physical danger being there,” Quinn said. “They had to use the bathroom at the administrative office because it was dangerous” to use the student facilities.

Quinn said Padilla’s perception of being in physical danger was very real, and the day the fight broke out “he just totally panicked, he flipped.” Both victims recovered from their injuries.

Quinn said the case dragged on as defense attorneys considered whether to push forward for a trial on a self-defense theory. Ultimately, however, Padilla was not entitled to use deadly force, Quinn said, and that is why he was prosecuted.