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12-year-old
sentenced in death of playmate
September 28,
2006
A 12-year-old boy
East Brunswick was sentenced today to serve as much as three years
in a home for emotionally disturbed children after he pleaded guilty
to accidentally shooting and killing his playmate while showing off
a loaded gun.
The youngster was
sentenced during a closed hearing before Superior Court Judge Roger
Daley in New Brunswick, who accepted a plea agreement calling for
intensive counseling at the Bonnie Brae Residential Treatment Center
for Adolescent Boys in Liberty Corner.
Middlesex County
Assistant Prosecutor Nicholas Sewitch said the term was imposed
after he and the boy's attorney, Lawrence Bitterman of New
Brunswick, agreed incarceration was not the proper penalty for the
child, who could benefit from enrollment in the counseling and
rehabilitation program.
The child, who
appeared in Middlesex County Family Court with his divorced parents,
was sentenced after he pleaded guilty Sept. 5 to manslaughter. He
admitted he pointed a .38-caliber handgun at his friend, 12-year-old
Alexander Khoudiakov, and pulled the trigger, unaware the weapon was
loaded.
Khoudiakov, who
was visiting the boy's home, a townhouse at the Kingswood Station
development in East Brunswick, was killed instantly on June 28 when
he was shot in the head at close range, Sewitch said.
The boy's name is
being withheld by The Star-Ledger because of his age.
A 9-year-old boy
who also was in the bedroom of the townhouse where the shooting
occurred was not injured, Sewitch said.
The child charged
with the slaying has remained in custody since he was arrested,
shorrtly after he called 911, telling police his friend was shot,
authorities said.
Police
subsequently charged the shooter's father, Michael Guerriero, 46,
and grandmother, Josephine Guerriero, 72, with child endangerment,
contending they failed to secure a cache of 98 weapons that were
found in their townshouse.
The father and
grandmother have pleaded not-guilty. No trial date has been set.
Contributed by
Jim O'Neill
http://www.blogs.nj.com/default.asp?item=192102
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