EVERETT — A Marysville teen was sentenced to 10 years in adult prison Tuesday for shooting another young man outside a south Everett elementary school in May.
Jose Alfredo Beteran, who turns 17 in November, earlier this month pleaded guilty to first-degree assault.
Beteran shot a then- 17-year-old in the chest outside Horizon Elementary School on W. Casino Road. The victim survived. On Tuesday, the young man urged Snohomish County Superior Court Judge Ronald Castleberry to sentence his assailant long enough so he has time to think deeply on his actions and, hopefully, leave prison changed for the better.
The judge said he was impressed that the shooting victim did not seek revenge.
He also told Beteran he was fortunate.
“You were packing a gun and you came close to killing somebody,” Castleberry said.
The victim was shot while playing basketball outside the school. The gunfire sent people diving for cover. Beteran was arrested not long after, but the handgun was never recovered.
Detectives were told the violence was rooted in a long-running feud between the pair, some of it tinged by gang links on both sides.
Deputy prosecutor Julie Mohr asked for the 10-year sentence, a mid-range punishment under state sentencing guidelines.
The recommendation weighed several factors, she told the judge.
Beteran was 16 when the shooting occurred, but he has previous convictions as a juvenile for assault and stealing cars. The charge was brought in adult court because of the seriousness of the offense. Prosecutors filed it without tacking on the five-year deadly firearm enhancement. That was an option, had Beteran opted to go to trial, but he instead spared everyone the trouble.
Public defender Donald Wackerman said his client knew he’d done wrong. He asked the judge to consider ordering that Beteran serve the first year of his sentence in a lockup for juvenile offenders instead of the state Department of Corrections.
Castleberry declined. He also told Beteran that being sorry isn’t enough; the young man has to change.
The teen has just a single strike against him as a persistent offender, but unless he heads in another direction, Beteran’s lawless ways have him on a path toward a life sentence, the judge said.
“There was absolutely no justification for what you did,” he said. “There was no justification for a 16-year-old walking around with a loaded pistol.”
Scott North: 425-339-3431; north@heraldnet.com.
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