A 13-year-old girl was sentenced to 27 years to life in prison for gunning down a girlfriend who had switched gang affiliations.
Wednesday's sentencing followed a night of gang bloodshed that left four people dead and four injured. Such violence, coupled with rampant drug dealing, prompted the city Tuesday to create a $3 million program to deploy large squads of police in gang-infested areas.The girl, whose name was withheld because of her age, was sentenced in Compton Juvenile Court for the June 2 shooting of Patricia Tawana Thomas, 14. She was convicted of first-degree murder on Aug. 3.
Despite the heavy sentence, as a minor she can be imprisoned only until she is 25.
The killer and the slain girl were friends who had belonged to the 118th Street East Coast Crips gang, but the victim's decision to change gangs led to a dispute, said Dennis Fuhrman, a prosecutor assigned to the district attorney's Hardcore Gang Unit.
"She armed herself, went to the victim's house and while waiting for her to come outside she told some people standing outside that she was `gonna smoke"' the girl, Furhman said.
After the point-blank shooting, the 13-year-old bragged to fellow gang members that she had just killed a "Swan," referring to a member of the rival Bloods gang, Fuhrman said.
The victim, killed by a single shot to the chest, was wearing red, the color associated with the Bloods. Crips wear blue.
The girls also were feuding over a common boyfriend, Fuhrman said.
Tried and convicted as a juvenile, the girl will be turned over to the California Youth Authority, which operates prisons for minors.
Meanwhile, overnight street violence included three drive-by shootings. Two shootings left two teen-agers dead and two other people wounded in the city's south-central area, police said.
The third drive-by killed a 17-year-old boy in Compton, a southside suburb, said Compton police Lt. Joe Flores.
A fourth shooting was reported in suburban Inglewood. One person was slain and two others were wounded in an ambush, said Inglewood police spokesman Gary Luckett.