‘Slick 50s’ Gang Member Pleads Guilty, to Get 5 Years
A member of Orange County’s “Slick 50s” gang pleaded guilty Monday to attempted murder for beating and stabbing a guest at a 1998 party in Aliso Viejo.
Joshua Carlsen, 25, agreed to plead guilty after Judge Robert R. Fitzgerald said he would sentence him to five years in prison. The sentence is scheduled to be imposed next month.
In 2000, Fitzgerald sentenced Carlsen to 11 years in prison for the crimes, but a state appeals court last year overturned Carlsen’s convictions, citing mistakes by the judge and a defense attorney.
Deputy Dist. Atty. Jonathan Fish opposed the judge’s plea offer Monday, saying prosecutors hoped to take the case to trial.
A second defendant in the case, Jesse Grist, is scheduled to appear June 7 before Fitzgerald. His prior conviction also was overturned last year.
Grist and Carlsen were among five defendants convicted in an attack that seriously injured a 17-year-old boy.
The victim was struck with a bottle and stabbed at least three times with a knife.
The “Slick 50s” were a gang of young men who dressed in vintage 1950s clothing and prowled south Orange County looking for trouble, prosecutors alleged.
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