2 Teenage Robbers Get 1-Year Sentences

Two teenagers were sentenced to a year in jail and three years’ probation Tuesday for a botched robbery in which two students were shot last year at Gardena High School.

Gary Brooks and Darius Robinson, both 18, were sentenced by Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge James Pierce on Tuesday. They pleaded no contest to attempted robbery charges on May 28.

They had been released when they entered their pleas, as they were credited with serving 16 months in jail.

Prosecutors dropped attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon charges -- punishable by life in prison -- in exchange for the pleas.

As part of the agreement, co-defendant Kory Dewayne Corothers, 17, was sentenced earlier to seven years in prison for assault with a firearm.

Corothers got prison time because “he’s the one who had the gun and fired it,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Marilyn Seymour said.

Seymour said it is unclear exactly how Brooks and Robinson were involved. They were present when Carlos Flores was nearly robbed.

On Feb. 6, 2002, between class periods, the three then-Gardena High students approached Flores outside a restroom and demanded money, authorities said.

Saying that he didn’t have any, Flores turned to walk away and was shot in the back.

Student Stephanie Alonzo, a bystander, was shot in the hip.

Police locked down the school as they searched for the three. About 500 of the school’s 2,300 students were kept in their classrooms for nearly five hours during the unsuccessful hunt.

The three surrendered later that week.