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A Las Vegas teen pleaded guilty as an adult Wednesday to felony charges that a prosecutor said could have sent him to decades in prison for assaulting a high school teacher and leaving her unconscious in a classroom a year ago. Is.
The incident, which included allegations of sexual assault, hospitalized the teacher with multiple injuries and brought into focus a rapid increase in violence in the Clark County School District, the nation’s fifth largest at the time.
The Associated Press is not naming the defendant because of his age. Now 17, he pleaded guilty to attempted murder, attempted sexual assault and battery with a deadly weapon causing great bodily harm. His pleas set off a trial in Clark County District Court.
Public defenders representing the boy did not immediately respond to email messages from the AP.
The prosecutor, Chief Deputy Clark County District Attorney William Rawls, confirmed the plea agreement. He told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that he intends to seek the maximum sentence of 55 years at sentencing on June 5.
Las Vegas police said the boy approached the teacher to talk about his grades, punched and choked her unconscious and fled her classroom at the on-campus Eldorado High School, which serves about 2,000 students. Another school employee found the teacher and called the police and medical help.
The teacher later told investigators that while she was sitting at her desk the teen approached her and choked her from behind with a noose or rope before pulling out the bookcase and entering the cabinet.
“I don’t know why I attacked her, she was being nice to me,” a police arrest report quoted the student as telling detectives.
The teen, who participated in ROTC, was arrested about two hours later while his mother drove him back to campus for a corps awards ceremony.
