No Charges Planned in Fatal Stabbing
The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office on Wednesday declined to file charges against the Valley Glen teenager who police said stabbed his father to death on New Year’s Eve.
“We can’t disprove self-defense or the defense of others beyond a reasonable doubt, which is our burden of proof,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Larry Diamond.
“The [boy] had been a victim of violence from the decedent in the past,” Diamond said. “There has been previous violence between the two.”
The father and son reportedly got into a fistfight before the 16-year-old stabbed 48-year-old Rafael Guijarro with a knife, said homicide Det. Richard Yep of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Van Nuys Division. The elder Guijarro died in an area hospital Sunday from his wounds.
Juvenile prosecutors had transferred the case to Van Nuys Superior Court to charge the boy as an adult under Proposition 21. But Van Nuys prosecutors refused to file charges after discussing details of the case with police investigators on Wednesday.
“They rejected the case, so that closes it” Yep said.
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