Quartz Hill

LOS ANGELES -- The older of two teens accused of plotting a Columbine High-type attack at Quartz Hill High School on Valentine's Day pleaded not guilty Monday to conspiracy to commit murder and a related charge.

Johnny Alvarez Casas, now 18, is also charged with possessing the ingredients to make a destructive device.

Casas -- who was 17 at the time of the alleged plot -- is being tried as an adult. He remains in custody pending an Aug. 16 pretrial hearing in Lancaster Superior Court.

Casas and another teen allegedly planned to set off a bomb at the high school where they had previously been enrolled.

LANCASTER, June 30, 2006 - One of two teens accused of plotting a Columbine-style Valentine's Day attack at an Antelope Valley high school was ordered Thursday to stand trial on felony charges.

Lancaster Superior Court Judge Christopher Estes found sufficient evidence to bound Johnny Alvarez Casas over for trial on charges of conspiracy to commit a crime and possession of ingredients to make a destructive device.

Casas, now 18, is due back in court July 17 for arraignment.

Antelope Valley Superior Court Judge Christopher Estes last week denied a request by the Los Angeles County Probation Department to transfer Johnny Alvarez Casas, 18, from Juvenile Hall to an adult jail.

"He will remain under the supervision of juvenile custody," Estes said.

Casas was 17 when he was arrested in December on charges of conspiracy to commit murder and possessing bomb-making ingredients. He has pleaded not guilty and is being held without bail at Sylmar Juvenile Hall.

"As of this point in time, we have not seen any evidence that would support the charges being made against him," said Casas' attorney, James Stevens, after a court hearing. "Johnny did nothing."

"We believe it was a very improper and incorrect ruling," Stevens said. "Johnny is a good kid. He has special-education needs that are severe. He has an IQ of 71, and he's very young."

Attending the hearing Wednesday were Casas' grandparents, his mother and his girlfriend, Stevens said.

Two Quartz Hill teenagers planned a Columbine-style attack on their old high school in February in meticulous detail, sheriff's deputies allege.

Johnny Alvarez Casas, then 17, and his friend, then 15, stockpiled ammunition and bomb-making supplies in their homes, then practiced detonating improvised explosives in the Antelope Valley desert, deputies said. The younger suspect's name is being withheld because of his age.

The two were looking for an adult to buy them guns so they could shoot other students and ultimately kill themselves, but the plot unraveled, deputies said. A 16-year-old sophomore heard that the boys were planning to cut off her arms and legs during the attack and alerted an assistant principal, according to deputies. The boys were arrested Dec. 15.

Deputies said the boys confessed that they wanted to retaliate for ridicule they endured over their goth attire and lifestyle.

James A. Stevens, Casas' defense attorney, said authorities wrung a false confession out of the boys with a "good cop, bad cop" routine. The two, who are charged with conspiracy to commit murder, have pleaded not guilty.

Stevens called the case the result of a massive overreaction by jittery school officials to fears of a possible rerun of the 1999 attack in which two teenage boys killed 12 students and a teacher at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., before turning their guns on themselves.

"Johnny is a good kid, plain and simple," Stevens said. "The only thing they haven't done to him is send him to Guantanamo Bay in Cuba."

Casas, now 18, faces a maximum sentence of life in prison without parole. His alleged accomplice, now 16, could be held in juvenile custody until he turns 25.

Stevens said Casas was harmless, a mixed-up kid of below-average intelligence shaken by his parents' divorce. But Casas and his alleged accomplice were placed on probation for allegedly sodomizing a 14-year-old boy with a crowbar three years ago, Stevens acknowledged. Deputies confirmed the charge.

One of two teenagers accused of planning a Columbine-type attack at an Antelope Valley high school on Valentine's Day pleaded not guilty Monday to felony charges.

Johnny Alvarez Casas, 17, is charged as an adult with one count each of conspiracy to commit murder and possession of ingredients to make a destructive device.

San Fernando Juvenile Court Commissioner Jack Gold found the teen unfit to stand trial as a juvenile during a hearing last Thursday.

One of the boys allegedly said the plan was "to kill all of the students who have made fun of him and then commit suicide," according to sheriff's officials.

The girl said the younger boy threatened to cut off her arms and legs during the attack, according to deputies.

A search of the other boy's home allegedly produced satanic drawings and photographs of various killers, including the two who went on a rampage at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., in 1999, officials said.

Deputies also said they seized instructions about making bombs, detonators and fuses.

The 17-year-old boy, whose name won't be released until he is formally charged Monday in Antelope Valley Superior Court, was found unfit to be tried as a juvenile after an all-day Juvenile Court hearing Thursday, Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office officials said.

Despite the arrests, rumors of an attack by associates of the suspects continued, Brown said, though he added that detectives have found nothing to substantiate the rumor.

"I want to assure parents of the students attending Quartz Hill High School that the district has done everything possible to make Feb. 14th a safe school day throughout the campuses of the Antelope Valley Union High School District," Superintendent David Vierra said.

The boy appeared in Sylmar Juvenile Court on Friday to be arraigned on five counts of making criminal threats against his parents, the two students he talked to on the telephone and Quartz Hill High School students in general.

The boys, whose names were not released because of their age, appeared in Sylmar Juvenile Court on Wednesday, but setting the date for the so-called fitness hearing was put over to Feb. 9 because more reports were needed, Felker said.

At a fitness hearing, the judge will consider reports prepared by a probation officer on the boys' past behavior and social history.

The judge will decide whether or not the teens would be "amenable to the care, treatment, and training program available through" the juvenile system based on five criteria.

They are the degree of criminal sophistication exhibited by the minors; whether the minors can be rehabilitated prior to the expiration of the Juvenile Court's jurisdiction; the minors' previous delinquent history; success of previous attempts by the Juvenile Court to rehabilitate the minors; and the circumstances and gravity of the offenses alleged to have been committed by the minors.

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