SAN DIEGO (CNS) — A 15-year-old Lakeside girl convicted for an attack on a woman that led to an allegedly racially-motivated stabbing of the victim's daughter was ordered Wednesday to be committed to an urban camp for juvenile offenders.
The defendant, whose name was withheld because she is a minor, was found guilty of assault and a hate crime allegation in the April 16 incident, in which prosecutors allege she wielded a drainage grate towards the woman. When the victim's 16-year-old daughter intervened, she was stabbed in the back twice by a 16-year-old boy, prosecutors allege.
At the conclusion of a brief bench trial, a judge convicted the girl last month of assault and found that the incident was a hate crime, but declined to convict her of an attempted murder charge. The girl was sentenced Wednesday to the Urban Camp program for a period of no more than 120 days.
The boy, who prosecutors said is the boyfriend of the girl sentenced on Wednesday, faces charges of attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon and could be tried as an adult. His next court hearing is slated for October.
According to police, the incident unfolded at about 11 p.m. April 16 on Mapleview Street.
The San Diego County Sheriff's Department said a group of youths angrily confronted the 16-year-old victim, who is Black, as well as members of the victim's family.
The hostile teens shouted racial slurs at the girl and her relatives, apparently upset about an assault that had occurred earlier in the day, sheriff's Lt. Shawn Wray said.
According to testimony at the girl's trial, the confrontation may have been sparked because the boy believed someone had bullied his younger sister. During the ensuing confrontation, his girlfriend picked up a two-foot long drainage grate, prompting the teenage victim to put herself between her mother and the other girl. The male suspect then allegedly stabbed the victim twice in the back, then ran off along with his cohorts.
