A grieving Las Vegas mother has been left ‘dumbfounded and in shock’ after four bullies who were caught on camera beating her son to death accepted plea deals.
Melissa Ready lost her son Jonathan Lewis, 17, after he was attacked by a group of teens and stomped to the point of unconsciousness, before dying a week later.
Dontral Beaver, 16, Damian Hernandez, 18, Treavion Randolph, 16, and Gianni Robinson all stood accused of his murder after being charged as adults in January.
On Thursday, it was announced that they all accepted a plea deal that will allow them to plead guilty as juveniles to manslaughter.
That case would take place in a juvenile court, with the four facing an undetermined length of imprisonment in a juvenile detention center.
Should any of the teens back out of the deal, then all four would again be charged in adult court, Chief Deputy District Attorney John Giordani said.
Speaking with 8newsnow, Ready spoke of her disgust after the plea deal was announced, saying the four should be tried as adults.
Ready told the outlet: ‘You cannot jump in a human being’s head, stomp on him, and think that they’re going to remain alive after.
‘They knew he was going to die, and that’s how I feel – and they’re letting them get away with murder.
‘I was told that they were going to plea guilty to murder and that the most they would get in the adult system is two years.
‘I would’ve disagreed with the deal entirely. They should be accountable as adults – they made an adult choice.’
She also added that the move by prosecutors had left her both ‘dumbfounded’ and ‘in shock’.
Lewis’s fatal assault took place outside Rancho High School in Las Vegas on November 1 of last year.
Videos of the attack show a group of teens hitting, kicking and stomping Lewis to the point of unconsciousness, which caused his death a week later.
Out of the nine teens arrested, four others, including a 13-year-old boy, have pleaded guilty in juvenile court to voluntary manslaughter.
Authorities in Vegas have said the students agreed to meet in the alley to fight over a vape pen and wireless headphones that had been stolen from Lewis’ friend.
Footage obtained by 8 News Now shows Lewis being carried to safety by a student and neighbor back to the high school after the savage attack.
Defense lawyer Robert Draskovich, representing Robinson, called the fight a tragedy, but said convicting the four as adults would have been a second tragedy.
On Thursday, he said: ‘This negotiation enables my client to graduate high school, move on with his life and become a productive citizen.’
Draskovich said he would ask at sentencing for Robinson to be released from custody with credit for time already served.
In a statement, Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson acknowledged Lewi’s mother’s comments and ‘the pain she is going through as she mourns her son’.
It added that she had been informed last week about the terms of the negotiations before defending the resolution of the case.
The statement said juvenile court is ‘best equipped to punish the defendants for their heinous conduct’ while also offering rehabilitation.
In Nevada, a teenager facing a murder charge can be charged as an adult if they were 13 or older when the crime occurred.