Sixteen-year-old Donald Ray Dokins'short stature and baby face belie the crime he committed: the fatal shooting of a 1-year-old boy in the arms of his proud and doting father.
As he willing to sentence the teenager, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Pat Connolly could barely contain his contempt. “You've no intestinal fortitude to sit up and look at me,” Connolly said to Dokins, who was simply staring at the floor, steering clear of the judge's gaze. “You've hatred in your heart that I can't understand.”
Prosecutors claim that on June 4, 2012, Dokins, a then-15-year-old gang member, rode up on a bicycle to a family gathered outside a home in Watts. He drew a revolver and opened fire, killing 14-month-old Angel Mauro Cortez Vega and wounding his 21-year-old father, Mauro Cortez. Dokins, authorities say, mistakenly believed the father was a member of a rival gang because of the color of his T-shirt.
As he willing to sentence the teenager, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Pat Connolly could barely contain his contempt. “You've no intestinal fortitude to sit up and look at me,” Connolly said to Dokins, who was simply staring at the floor, steering clear of the judge's gaze. “You've hatred in your heart that I can't understand.”
Prosecutors claim that on June 4, 2012, Dokins, a then-15-year-old gang member, rode up on a bicycle to a family gathered outside a home in Watts. He drew a revolver and opened fire, killing 14-month-old Angel Mauro Cortez Vega and wounding his 21-year-old father, Mauro Cortez. Dokins, authorities say, mistakenly believed the father was a member of a rival gang because of the color of his T-shirt.
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