LONG BEACH -- The case of a local teen charged with killing a Long Beach man for his iPod made small progress Monday.
The defendant -- who was 15 at the time of the April 2009 killing of Garrett Norris, 27 -- was found mentally competent to stand trial and scheduled for a fitness hearing in September.
The fitness hearing will used to determine if the minor -- who has not been identified by authorities because he is a juvenile -- should stand trial as an adult.
The case is one that has dragged on for more than year, with a number of different defense attorneys assigned to the defendant at various points and the issue of his mental health raised by the defense earlier this year.
Norris was gunned down in broad daylight while playing basketball with friends on a Saturday afternoon at Orizaba Park, located at Spaulding Street and Orizaba Avenue.
He was shot after he tried to stop two alleged gang members from running off with his belongings, which included his iPod, police said.
The USC engineering graduate, who moved to Long Beach the previous fall after securing a job with Mercedes-Benz of Long Beach, chased the suspects into an nearby alley, where he was shot in the chest, according to authorities.
Norris was pronounced dead at a local hospital.
The then 15-year-old defendant was arrested within a few days of Norris' slaying and has remained in custody at a juvenile detention center since that time.
His fitness hearing is scheduled for June 27, according to court staff.
If he is tried as an adult and if he is convicted on all counts the now 16-year-old faces the possibility of life without parole.
The defendant -- who was 15 at the time of the April 2009 killing of Garrett Norris, 27 -- was found mentally competent to stand trial and scheduled for a fitness hearing in September.
The fitness hearing will used to determine if the minor -- who has not been identified by authorities because he is a juvenile -- should stand trial as an adult.
The case is one that has dragged on for more than year, with a number of different defense attorneys assigned to the defendant at various points and the issue of his mental health raised by the defense earlier this year.
Norris was gunned down in broad daylight while playing basketball with friends on a Saturday afternoon at Orizaba Park, located at Spaulding Street and Orizaba Avenue.
He was shot after he tried to stop two alleged gang members from running off with his belongings, which included his iPod, police said.
The USC engineering graduate, who moved to Long Beach the previous fall after securing a job with Mercedes-Benz of Long Beach, chased the suspects into an nearby alley, where he was shot in the chest, according to authorities.
Norris was pronounced dead at a local hospital.
The then 15-year-old defendant was arrested within a few days of Norris' slaying and has remained in custody at a juvenile detention center since that time.
His fitness hearing is scheduled for June 27, according to court staff.
If he is tried as an adult and if he is convicted on all counts the now 16-year-old faces the possibility of life without parole.
I hope this miscreant get life without parole.