A Painesville teen accused of firing several shots at another boy is scheduled to go on trial April 14 in Lake County Juvenile Court.
The 16-year-old boy is charged with three counts of felonious assault and one count of discharge of a firearm on or near prohibited premises.
According to court officials:
The charges resulted from an incident on Oct. 25, 2013, in which he and a group of peers were driving in Painesville past the victim — who had his baby and the baby’s mother with him — and waved a pistol.
The victim became angry because of the fact that his baby was in the car, followed them, and stopped in a parking lot across the street from a parking lot they were in at Richmond and East Prospect streets.
The victim and two of the peers in the car began arguing and challenging each other while walking towards each other across the street. Meanwhile, the juvenile defendant got out of the car and let out several shots. Nobody was injured.
An eyewitness identified the suspect, who is being held on $35,000 bond, because they went to school together.
The prosecutor is seeking a rare Serious Youthful Offender designation, which would allow Judge Karen Lawson to give the teen a combined juvenile and adult sentence. An SYO designation is different from a bindover where the juvenile’s case is sent to an adult court to be heard.
An SYO sentence can be considered for children 10 and over who commit a serious offense, according to the Ohio State Bar Association.
In SYO cases, the court issues the juvenile portion of the sentence along with the adult portion of the sentence as if the juvenile were an adult, except the court cannot order a sentence of death or life in prison without parole.
The adult portion of the sentence is stayed, meaning a child does not serve the adult sentence immediately. The adult sentence may not have to be served at all if the child successfully completes the juvenile portion of the sentence.
If the child commits a serious offense while serving the juvenile portion of the sentence, is over age 14 and has previously been committed to a youth prison, the court can lift the stay on the adult sentence and order the child to be transferred to an adult correctional facility or to adult probation and community controls, according to the bar association.
The teen is being represented by defense attorney Tyrone Reed.