A gang-style beating last spring that left a former Kamiak High School student with a broken bone in his face earned one of the assailants up to nine months in a juvenile prison Thursday.
The Lynnwood boy, 16, earlier pleaded guilty to felony second-degree assault in connection with the May 15 attack.
“That was a very wrong and stupid choice that I made,” the teen said during a hearing in the juvenile division of Snohomish County Superior Court. The Herald does not usually publish the names of offenders in juvenile court cases.
The assailant apologized to his victim, Zaiah Boone, as well as to the boy’s family.
Zaiah and his mother went public after the attack. The case triggered a furor over whether gangs were active, or just imagined, in upscale Mukilteo.
The teen sentenced Thursday admitted being one of two youths who pummeled Zaiah, then 15, outside the high school. A large crowd of students looked on but did nothing.
The assailant admitted repeatedly kneeing and punching Zaiah in the face with a fist wrapped in a red bandana, deputy prosecutor Matthew Pittman said in court Thursday.
Judge Eric Lucas heard conflicting information about whether the beating was motivated by gang activity. Pittman noted that the assailant had admitted he obtained the bandana used in the assault from a friend but refused to answer police questions on the subject.
Zaiah told police he believed the assailants belonged to a gang, and he claimed gang ties himself. Detectives said they never found any evidence that supported the boy’s gang claims. The suspects and others who know them denied gang affiliation.
Zaiah on Thursday told the judge that the beating left him in pain and afraid.
“Every time I go out I just worry about what may happen; somebody going to jump you, you know,” he said.
Zaiah’s mother, Domini Boone, said that her son was trying to fit in at Kamiak, but no longer attends that school. The blows her son suffered were deliberate, repeated and severe enough that they could have ended his life, she said.
The attacker’s attorney asked Lucas to show mercy. Since his arrest, the teen has started counseling, found a job hanging drywall, and is trying to return to school.
Lucas said he is convinced the teen is remorseful, but decided he should face time behind bars.
The beating took away Zaiah’s sense of security, Lucas said.
“When you hurt someone like that, you are taking something away that they will never get back,” he said.
A second boy, 16, is expected to go before a judge in November. He also was charged with second-degree assault.
Reporter Scott North: 425-339-3431 or north@heraldnet.com.
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