Gang Sentences Set Aside in ’98 Stabbing

A judge on Friday threw out the most serious charges against three teenage members of a south Orange County “bully gang” in connection with the near-fatal stabbing of another teenager but ruled that the adult who actually wielded the knife should spend 11 years in prison.

Members of the Slick ‘50s were convicted of attempted murder last year and classified by the jury as a terrorist street gang. But Superior Court Judge Robert R. Fitzgerald reduced the charges to assault for three of the young men and indicated that none of the defendants would have their incarceration times lengthened by the gang classification.

The sentencing brings to a close a case that stirred debate over whether a group of youths known for 1950s hairstyles and clothing should be considered a criminal street gang or just a teenage clique. It also highlighted what authorities called the emergence of a new type of gang in affluent suburbs.

Five defendants were convicted last year in the 1998 attack on Galen Thorne, then 17, at a party in Aliso Viejo. Thorne was stabbed three times and left with severe facial scars after a beer bottle was smashed over his head.

The three Slick ‘50s members whose attempted murder charges were reduced--Kurtis Pinedo, 18, Steve Crader, 18, and Joshua Riazi, 17--will be sentenced in May after the California Youth Authority determines whether they should serve their time at one of the agency’s facilities or in state prison. The judge said he would not sentence them to more than four years.

The judge let stand the attempted murder charge against Jesse Grist, 18, and sentenced him to six years. The adult defendant, 22-year-old Josh Carlsen, was sentenced to 11 years in prison. The judge said he believes that it was Carlsen who stabbed Thorne. Carlsen was considered an “associate” but not a member of the Slick ‘50s.

An eyewitness testified to seeing Carlsen cleaning a bloody knife shortly after the incident, but prosecutors argued that all five should be held equally culpable for the stabbing. Under the definition of a street gang, members are responsible for crimes regardless of the level of their individual involvement.

Fitzgerald did not elaborate on why he set aside sentencing on the gang terrorism charges. Defense attorneys said the reduced sentences suggested that the judge did not consider the Slick ‘50s a traditional street gang.

“He knows a gang when he sees one,” said Jennifer Keller, Grist’s attorney. “Clearly he didn’t believe this was as much a gang incident as a bunch of testosterone-fueled teenagers acting like a bunch of jerks.”

But the prosecutor, Marc Kelly, disagreed, saying the judge would have completely dismissed the gang charges if he didn’t believe the members were part of a gang.

“There is no doubt in my mind that he felt this was a gang case,” Kelly said.

The sentencing followed a tense hearing that included emotional pleas for leniency from the victim and his father. “I have already begun to forgive them,” said Thorne, who still bears scars from the attack. “I don’t think they are going to do that again.”

Thorne’s father, Greg, speaking directly to the defendants, urged them to reflect on their crimes and said he would be willing to shake their hands if they emerged from prison as changed men. “We are willing to forgive. But, my God, gentlemen, become men,” he said.