Browse archives: 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001 | 2000 | 1999 | 1998 | 1997 | 1996 | 1995

Published on 12/02/1996 All articles from this issue

DA: Los Altos High School student a ringleader in kidnap-torture case

printer friendly version

By Joanne Griffith Domingue / Town Crier Staff Writer

A Los Altos High School freshman has been identified as one of two alleged ringleaders in the Nov. 14 kidnap-torture of an eighth grader from Mountain View.

During a Nov. 26 hearing, the district attorney also served the 14-year-old boy with five additional charges, some possibly involving a second victim.

"We don't have a normal bully here," Deputy District Attorney Rick Gardener told the judge. "We may possibly have a very dangerous sociopath."

Judge Thomas C. Edwards then ordered the heavy-set boy with short brown hair not to have contact with the other four boys who face charges in this case. All five teenagers are in custody in Santa Clara County juvenile hall in San Jose.

The other 14-year-old named in the incident, also a Los Altos High School student, admitted his involvement and agreed to testify against the other boys.

His attorney, Public Defender Zach Ledet, said in the hearing that he has "serious concerns for his safety from the others." Ledet asked that his client, a small boy with dark hair, be housed by himself and not paired with one of the others.

The boys appeared one at a time with their attorneys and grim-faced parents.

The troubles for these boys began Nov. 14 when they allegedly kidnapped and tortured a Mountain View boy.

The victim and three of the alleged bullies are 13-year-old students at Crittenden Middle School in Mountain View.

All six gathered after school that day and went to the home of "my client," said his attorney John Hinkle.

What happened next, things Gardener called "sadistic behavior," included handcuffing, beating, shooting with a BB gun, forcing the victim to drink toilet water and skating on his legs with inline skates, authorities said.

"This is some of the most serious crime I've seen committed by kids in 22 years," said Ray Ortiz, Supervising Probation Officer at juvenile hall.

One of the eighth graders was also named an alleged ringleader during the hearing, and also faces five additional charges, possibly involving another victim.

Hinkle describes the boys as "six friends, all buddies, not five guys who picked on one guy."

They were all into the World Wrestling Federation, Hinkle said, a media phenomena with "wrestlers who do horrible things to each other in the ring."

One wrestler, "who seems to enjoy making his opponents scream in terror," according to the Web page, is called the Executioner.

Another, Jake the Snake with the "dark, ruthless heart of a serpent," takes his boa constrictor into the ring. According to the Web page, one time he sent an opponent a live cobra wrapped as a wedding gift.

Hinkle said he thought that a lot of the boys' behavior "stemmed from six lonely, immature boys who had a certain amount of fantasy life involved with this (WWF) caricature of real men. These buddies went overboard this one particular day. They got carried away like the boys in 'Lord of the Flies.'"

The boys will appear in court Dec. 11 for a disposition hearing.

Gardener said it is not impossible, with kidnapping and torture charges, to try a 14-year-old as an adult.

Officials at the Mountain View-Los Altos Union High School District said they are recommending expulsion for the two high school students.