LOS ANGELES (AP) — A Southern California teenager has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the killing of a gay classmate in a deal that will send him to prison for 21 years.
Ventura County Chief Deputy District Attorney Mike Frawley says the plea deal was reached Monday in the case of 17-year-old Brandon McInerney, who gunned down 15-year-old Larry King at a school in Oxnard in February 2008. McInerney was 14 at the time.
The case had been expected to go to retrial following a September mistrial when jurors couldn’t reach a unanimous decision on the degree of guilt.
Prosecutors contended that McInerney embraced a white supremacist philosophy that sees homosexuality as an abomination. Defense attorneys claimed he reached an emotional breaking point after King made repeated, unwanted sexual advances.
