EVERETT — A ninth-grader who accidentally shot his 11-year-old brother in the face won’t serve any more time in detention but he will be on probation for a year.
The boy, 15, pleaded guilty late last month to third-degree assault and illegal gun possession in connection with the Nov. 29 shooting.
The teen’s brother survived the gunfire.
Snohomish County Superior Court Judge Eric Lucas declined the defense’s motion to give the boy a deferred sentence. That would have opened the door for the charges to be dismissed if the teen successfully completed a year of probation.
Lucas sentenced the boy to 26 days of detention, which he’d already served. The judge imposed a year of probation and ordered the teen to do 72 hours of community service.
The Herald is not naming the boy because he was convicted as a juvenile.
As a condition of his sentence the teen is prohibited from engaging in “assaultive or threatening behavior.”
He told detectives he purchased the .38-caliber revolver and 15 bullets for $250 two months after he was shot in the chest during a gang-related drive-by shooting.
He kept the weapon under his mattress but that day he tucked the gun and five bullets into a pocket in his pants. He admitted to detectives that he was playing with the weapon and spinning the cylinder. He pulled the trigger but the gun didn’t fire. That’s when his younger brother told him to stop playing around.
“You don’t know what you’re doing,” the boy said.
The teen pulled the trigger twice more. On the third attempt, the gun went off.
The teenager initially told a sheriff’s deputy that a stranger had shot his brother. His story changed after his father arrived home and confronted him.
He “admitted that he knows guns can kill or injure someone,” Snohomish County deputy prosecutor Leanne Foster wrote in charging papers.
He was shot in the chest in August during a drive-by shooting in south Everett. The round perforated his heart.
The shooting happened when he and three other boys went looking for another teenager. They told police they planned to beat the 18-year-old up in retaliation for a gang-related beef. The group ended up stopped at a light next to him. Juan Beteran-Monrroy is accused of placing a military-style rifle on top of his car and pointing it at the pickup.
The trio threw a knife and metal baseball bat at him before speeding off. Beteran-Monrroy allegedly gave chase and shot at the truck.
The 15-year-old was struck near the armpit and began coughing up blood.
Beteran-Monrroy is charged with first-degree assault and drive-by shooting. His trial is scheduled for March.
Diana Hefley: 425-339-3463, hefley@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @dianahefley.
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