"I'm a goin' to jail!"
Posted on 06/20/2002 3:31:08 PM PDT by jeannineinsd
EL CAJON – Charles "Andy" Williams pleaded guilty today to more than a dozen felony charges stemming from the deadly shooting spree at Santana High School last year.
The 16-year-old Williams now faces a minimum of 50 years to life behind bars, and a maximum of 435 years to life.
Union-Tribune Andy Williams has grown to more than 6 feet tall while in custody.
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Santana High School Shooting
In a tense and hushed hearing, Williams answered "guilty" to a numbing litany of charges read by Superior Court Judge Herbert Exarhos. He pleaded guilty to two counts of murder and 13 counts of attempted murder, plus weapons charges, for the March 5, 2001 shooting at the East County high school.
Two students were killed and 13 other wounded in the six-minute shootout.
His attorney said Williams pleaded to a lifetime behind bars because he wanted to spare the families of the victims he killed and wounded, plus his own family, the ordeal of a trial. Williams was 15 years old at the time.
"Andy Williams wanted to make a statement to the community that he is truly remorseful," said defense attorney Randy Mize. He said he and his client have been contemplating a plea for several months.
After Williams pleaded guilty, prosecutors dropped 13 lesser charges of assault with a firearm, as well as some weapons allegations. The judge said Williams will go to state prison but won't be housed with adults until he turns 18.
Prosecutor Kris Anton emphasized there were no deals made, and that the charges dropped duplicated the charges Williams admitted guilt to.
"He pleaded guilty to everything that he did," she said.
Before the pleas were entered, defense attorney Randy Mize told the judge "Mr. Williams has no desire to cause anymore pain to the victims' families or his family."
Several relatives of shooting victims cried. Williams smiled and nodded at his father, who responded with a thumbs-up sign.
The six-minute spree of violence at the school in Santee on March 5, 2001, killed Bryan Zuckor, 14, and Randy Gordon, 17, and wounded 11 other students, a teacher and a campus monitor.
Williams will be sentenced on Aug. 15.
Mize declined to say outside court what sentence he will seek for his client.
"I certainly do hope that at some point in the distant future he can be a free person," Mize said.
Williams had been contemplating a guilty plea for several months, Mize said.
"He is truly remorseful. He doesn't want to cause the victims or their families or his family any more pain," Mize said, adding, "He's telling the community that he's owning up to his conduct."
The defense will try to explain during the sentencing hearing why Williams did the shooting and may also introduce testimony about alleged bullying of Williams.
Williams was awaiting trial on two counts of murder, 13 counts of attempted murder and 13 counts of assault with a firearm. The latter counts were dismissed.
Williams, who would have been tried as an adult, faces a minimum of 50 years to life in prison and possible maximum sentence of more than 400 years to life in prison.
Prosecutor Kristin Anton said she will meet with victims before deciding what sentence to seek.
"It would be my hope that the defendant spends the rest of his life in prison for what he did," Anton told reporters.
The wounded campus monitor, Peter Ruiz, 24, said he still has a bullet lodged in his back and has not been able to return to work.
"Not only I, but the families of the victims, have to live through this every day. I get back pains and I have to think about how I got those back pains," he told reporters.
"The events of today reinforced our confidence in the justice system," said Rufino Macagba, Zuckor's grandfather.
Gordon's mother was holding a middle school graduation party for her daughter, who will attend Santana High in the fall, and was unable to attend the hearing. Prosecutors warned her in advance that a guilty plea was possible, Mari Gordon-Rayborn said.
"It's a really big relief," Gordon-Rayborn told The Associated Press. "We can put it behind us sort of and maybe it will help our healing."
Williams was a 15-year-old freshman at the time of the shooting. He had just moved to Santee and had been in school for only a few months.
Defense attorneys said he was the victim of frequent bullying by others at the school.
Jeff Williams, 41, the boy's father, claimed his son was repeatedly burned with the hot metal of cigarette lighters, suffered welts when he was beaten with a towel, and was slammed against a tree twice.
Prosecutors contended they found no evidence to confirm the bullying claim.
Jeff Williams said his son had access to the key to his gun cabinet, but he wasn't concerned because the boy was taught to be responsible with guns.
The attack, which came nearly two years after the 1999 massacre of 15 people at Columbine High School in Colorado, was the first of two shootings in two weeks at schools in San Diego's eastern suburbs.
On March 22, 2001, Jason Hoffman, a student with a history of mental illness, wounded five people at Granite Hills High School in El Cajon. He pleaded guilty to attempted murder and assault, then hanged himself in jail. He was 18.
In ruling earlier that Williams would be tried as an adult, the court had rejected a challenge to Proposition 21, a gang violence and juvenile justice law that requires prosecutors to charge juveniles as adults for certain serious crimes.
Prosecutors alleged that Williams was lying in wait for his victims, a circumstance that automatically lands cases in adult court.
Williams' lawyers argued that Proposition 21 violated prohibitions against cruel and unusual punishment in the California Constitution and gave prosecutors the power of judges.
Of course his smiling wasn't a knife in anybody's heart. Wonder how much his victims would have grown if they'd been allowed to live.
So we'll educate him in prison and he'll have a rather comfortable life, when he should be executed for the lives he took. Just remember, commit your crimes in CA and plead that you are retarded.
The 16-year-old Williams now faces a minimum of 50 years to life behind bars, and a maximum of 435 years to life.
They’ll be sending him up the moon river.
How long to they expect this guy to live?
Claudine must be sooooooooooo jealous....
Can't. He's dead.
In a tense and hushed hearing, Williams answered "guilty" to a numbing litany of charges read by Superior Court Judge Herbert Exarhos. He pleaded guilty to two counts of murder and 13 counts of attempted murder, plus weapons charges, for the March 5, 2001 shooting at the East County high school.
Don’t send your kids to public schools.
Defense attorneys said he was the victim of frequent bullying by others at the school.
Jeff Williams, 41, the boy's father, claimed his son was repeatedly burned with the hot metal of cigarette lighters, suffered welts when he was beaten with a towel, and was slammed against a tree twice.
Little pus$! I went to Santana H.S. for two years in the early '70s. It far more tame there than it used to be.
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