LAS VEGAS — Four teenagers accused in the fatal group beating of a fellow high school student were charged with second-degree murder on Tuesday.
The two 16-year-olds and two 17-year-olds are being tried as adults, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported. They were also charged with conspiracy to commit battery resulting in substantial bodily harm, according to the newspaper.
Cox Media Group is not naming the defendants because they are juveniles.
Eight students were originally arrested in a Nov. 1 fight that left Rancho High School student Jonathan Lewis Jr., 17, dead, the Review-Journal reported. Lewis died from his injuries on Nov. 7.
On Tuesday, Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson announced that a ninth juvenile had been arrested, according to the newspaper.
Officials with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department said they believed 10 students took part in the beating, according to The Associated Press.
Lewis’ cause of death was listed as complications of multiple blunt force injuries, KLAS-TV reported. The coroner’s office listed his manner of death as a homicide, according to the television station.
After the hearing, Wolfson said his office filed second-degree murder charges because there was no advanced premeditation to warrant open murder charges, KSNV-TV reported.
“I reviewed all of the evidence yesterday with my colleagues, with Metropolitan Police Department detectives, and we didn’t feel that there was that advanced premeditation,” Wolfson said.
The fatal beating was allegedly captured on a video that showed a group of teens punching, kicking and stomping Lewis until he lost consciousness, the Review-Journal reported.
According to police, the fight appeared to be over a pair of stolen wireless headphones and possibly a marijuana vape pen stolen from Lewis or his friends, according to KSNV.
“I’ve been told that the videos that have been released are incomplete,” attorney Robert Draskovich, who was appointed to represent one of the 17-year-old defendants, told reporters on Tuesday, the Review-Journal reported. “I’ll be going through all the videos with my investigator to see what really happened.”
Family members of the suspects also attended Tuesday’s court hearing, the newspaper reported. Justice of the Peace Nadia Wood said they will appear in court again on Dec. 14 for a status check on the discovery process.
Wolfson called Tuesday’s proceedings a “sad day.”
“That (Lewis) family was shattered, and all the other families and their lives have been shattered as well,” Wolfson told reportesr. “So it’s a sad day that all this happened. But at the end of the day, I believe there have to be consequences.”