SEATTLE — A Washington appeals court has ordered a new sentencing for a man who was 16 when he shot and killed a 16-year-old girl outside Ballard High School in Seattle two decades ago.
KPLU-FM reported that Brian Ronquillo was in the passenger seat of a car when he shot at rival gang members and killed a bystander, Melissa Fernandes, in 1994. Ronquillo was sentenced to more than 50 years in prison after being tried as an adult and convicted of first-degree murder and other crimes.
Three judges on the Court of Appeals last week granted him a new sentencing. Their decision applied a state Supreme Court ruling from August that found the youth of an adult defendant can form the basis of an unusually light sentence, as well as U.S. Supreme Court precedent about sentencing juveniles.
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