Rancho beating defendants admit to manslaughter; victim’s mother objects

Four teens admitted to manslaughter Tuesday in the fatal beating of a 17-year-old Rancho High School student.

Treavion Randolph, 17, Dontral Beaver, 17, Damien Hernandez, 18, and Gianni Robinson, 17, were previously indicted on second-degree murder and conspiracy to commit battery charges, which they faced in adult court, for the death of Jonathan Lewis.

Lewis was attacked by a group of teens — who stomped, kicked and punched him until he fell unconscious — outside the school on Nov. 1.

The four defendants had their cases transferred to juvenile court, where they agreed to admit to voluntary manslaughter, in a deal announced last month.

Mellisa Ready, Lewis’ mother, has previously objected to the plea agreement and did so again after Tuesday’s hearings.

“There’s literally no one being held accountable with true punishment for my son’s murder,” she told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “It’s disgusting.”

Each defendant entered a plea to manslaughter before Juvenile Court Judge Linda Marquis. The deal required all four to do so.

Hernandez appeared in court out of custody. Chief Deputy District Attorney Kimberly Adams requested Marquis order him to be taken into custody.

“This is a very serious case,” Adams said.

Defense attorney Louis Schneider objected, saying Hernandez has showed up for all his court appearances and has been cooperative.

But Marquis granted Adams’ request.

“He represents a danger to the community,” she said.

The four face an undetermined length of incarceration in a juvenile detention center.

Children adjudicated guilty in the juvenile court system are not sentenced to serve a set amount of time, but get released after they complete rehabilitation programs while in custody, Brigid Duffy, the director of the Clark County district attorney’s office’s juvenile division, has previously said.

Schneider said the sentence is typically six months. Juvenile defendants can be held until they’re 21, he said, but that long a period of detention is unlikely.

Marquis declined to accept the defendants’ pleas last month, saying she had jurisdictional concerns.

Attorney Robert Draskovich, who represents Robinson, said at the time that the judge wanted the case dismissed in District Court. She also wanted the plea agreement to specify that the case would be dismissed in District Court and refiled in Juvenile Court, he said.

“It was a very fair resolution,” he said after court Tuesday.

Contact Noble Brigham at nbrigham@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BrighamNoble on X.