Spitball Felon, 13, Avoids 8-Year Jail Sentence

This was an accident, it shouldn't have been a criminal case. Take his parents to civil court and get some money out of them to pay for the medical costs.

We no longer live in a day and age of dispicline, but that of litigation.

This should have been something that was taken care of by the principal at school, then later by the firm hand of the parents!

Let's all thank the lawyers.

Also, I haven't read anything about the kid that was hurt. I wonder what he was doing. Could he have been playing with spitballs too? Was he being held against his will?

Also, I haven't read anything about the kid that was hurt. I wonder what he was doing. Could he have been playing with spitballs too? Was he being held against his will?

He was getting his cornea sewn back together.

From Post #14:

Here is what I read about this case on the day it surfaced. These two punks were wearing gang colors and intimidating kids in the hallway who didn't show them the proper amount of "respect." When the victim in this case didn't acknowledge their "song" and that the Lakers, I believe it was, were the best NBA team, this individual deliberately shot the kid in the eye with what is now being called a spitwad. What it was, in fact, was a foil wrapper off a piece of gum, very tightly compacted and intended to do harm.

I know a young boy in our town who was arrested by the FBI for throwing a water balloon. These folks are lunatics.

Obviously that kid is going to live a life of crime and end up in Graybar Hotel. :)

Here is an article from the hometown newspaper. Many of these facts came out initially but were then "left out" of the mainstream media reporting when they saw the value in attacking the justice system.

'Hall' time for spitball shooters

Judge also admonishes the parents; brothers face three weekends at facility

By Claire Booth

CONTRA COSTA TIMES

MARTINEZ - A judge sentenced 13-year-old Jeffrey Figueroa to a week in Juvenile Hall Thursday for damaging a classmate's eye with a pointed spitball and reprimanded his parents for taking the confidential case to the media.

The Figueroas, along with family and friends who testified about the boys' good character, maintained that the spitball's direct hit was an accident. A child can't just be a child anymore, mother Yvette Figueroa testified.

"This family needs a lot of help," Contra Costa Superior Court Judge Pro Tem Araceli Ramirez said. "Mr. and Mrs. Figueroa, you're in a great deal of denial about your children."

Jeffrey made national headlines last month after his conviction for felony mayhem and battery. He shot a pointed gum wrapper that tore the lens of the 14-year-old victim's eye.

His parents -- worried about the maximum possible sentence of eight years in juvenile prison -- went public.

They did not mention, however, the numerous run-ins Jeffrey and his 14-year-old brother Stephen have otherwise had with police, neighbors and school officials.

Ramirez also convicted Stephen last month of one count of misdemeanor battery, because during the Sept. 5, 2001, incident at Walnut Creek Intermediate School, he went down a line of classmates hitting those who said they didn't like the Oakland Raiders.

School officials said Stephen had been disciplined 49 times and Jeffrey 28 times.

After a daylong hearing that included glowing character testimony, Ramirez decided the boys' sentences will make them wards of the court. "I've never seen a case where there have been this many discipline contacts," she said.

Twenty neighbors were in court, all willing to testify that Jeffrey and Stephen dart into traffic, block vehicles with their bikes and throw things at cars.

Instead, senior district attorney inspector Mark Ernst told the neighbors' stories, including one in which one brother took a water bottle from an elderly woman and dumped the liquid on her.

Jeffrey's attorney, Carin Johnson, argued that he was under strict home supervision by the probation department at the time.

Figueroa friends and family packed the other side of the courtroom. The boys' parents, in the front row, blanched as Ramirez laid into them for presenting their version of events to the press.

"If the intent was to influence my decision ... out of fear or intimidation or public pressure, I need to tell you that has failed miserably."

She said getting "wined and dined" by national news could have no beneficial effect on their sons. "You lost focus of what's really important here."

The sentencing hearing normally would have been confidential as well. But after the Figueroas went on television, the District Attorney's Office asked that it be opened to the public, over defense objections.

The victim's mother talked publicly for the first time Thursday, telling Ramirez that her son has been threatened at school since the publicity started. "I trust that whatever you decide will be the best because nothing will give him back his vision," she said.

Both brothers originally were charged with battery, mayhem and two counts of assault.

Deputy district attorney Jim Picco, who filed the charges, said outside court that he believed the boys committed all the crimes, but that his office never intended to ask for incarceration.

Ramirez, however, ordered Jeffrey to spend six days in Juvenile Hall, to be served on weekends. Stephen, she ruled, will spend five days there, also on weekends. She ordered the brothers to report to Juvenile Hall at 5 p.m. today.

She also ordered both boys to take an anger management course and Yvette and Stephen Figueroa to take a parenting course. The boys also must volunteer at the Lions Blind Center of Diablo Valley.