Teen Sentenced In Brutal Robbery

A 14-year-old boy will spend about two years in state juvenile detention for his part in the robbery and beating of an Adams County man in August.

The boy was convicted of first-degree robbery in Adams County Superior Court in Ritzville last week, prosecutors said.

He was sentenced to between 103-129 weeks in detention.

Police said the boy and a 13-year-old lured Mauro T. Vazquez, 67, to an alley in Othello, knocked him to the ground, kicked him and beat him with a plastic baseball bat.

They then robbed Vazquez of $763 he was carrying in his wallet, police said.

Othello police officers Homer Montemayor, Kevin Kelly and David Rehaume later found the bleeding man lying unconscious in an alley.

The 13-year-old boy pleaded guilty in the Aug. 23 attack and later testified against his accomplice, prosecutors said. He was sentenced to between 80-103 weeks in state detention.

Calling him a “dangerous criminal regardless of his age,” Prosecutor David Sandhaus said he refused to pleabargain with the 14-year-old because of the boy’s criminal history.

The boy already had one robbery conviction and is still a suspect in a Spokane robbery, Sandhaus said.

, DataTimes