Eldest of ‘Slick 50s’ Gets 11-Year Term

A judge on Friday threw out the most serious charges against three teenage members of a South County “bully gang” in connection with the near-fatal stabbing of another teen but ruled that the adult who wielded the knife should spend 11 years in prison.

Members of the “Slick 50s” gang were convicted of attempted murder last year and classified by the jury as a terrorist street gang. But Superior Court Judge Robert R. Fitzgerald in Santa Ana indicated that none of the defendants will serve time for the gang convictions, which would have added years to each one’s time behind bars.

The sentencing brings to a close a case that stirred debate over whether a group of teens known for their 1950s hairstyles and clothing was a criminal street gang or just a clique of teenagers. It also highlighted what authorities called the emergence of a new type of gang in affluent suburbs.

The five defendants were convicted last year in the 1998 attack on a teenager at a party in Aliso Viejo. The victim, Galen Thorne, then 17, was stabbed three times and left with severe facial scars after a beer bottle was smashed over his head.

Although the three teenage gang members were convicted of attempted murder, Fitzgerald reduced those charges to assault.

The three--Kurtis Pinedo, 18, Steve Crader, 18, and Joshua Riazi, 17--will be sentenced in May after the California Youth Authority determines whether they should serve their punishment at a CYA facility or state prison. The judge said he would not sentence them to more than four years.

The judge let stand an attempted murder charge against Jesse Grist, 18, and sentenced him to six years. The adult defendant, 22-year-old Josh Carlsen, was sentenced to 11 years in prison. The judge said he believes it was Carlsen who stabbed the victim. Carlsen was considered an “associate” but not a member of the gang.

An eyewitness saw Carlsen cleaning a bloody knife shortly after the incident, but prosecutors argued that all five should be held equally culpable. Under the definition of a street gang, members are responsible for crimes regardless of the level of their individual involvement.

Fitzgerald did not elaborate on why he set aside sentencing on the gang terrorism charges. Defense attorneys said the reduced sentences suggested that the judge didn’t consider the Slick 50s a traditional street gang.

“He knows a gang when he sees one,” said Jennifer Keller, Grist’s attorney. “Clearly he didn’t believe this was as much a gang incident as a bunch of testosterone-fueled teenagers acting like a bunch of jerks.”

But the prosecutor, Marc Kelly, disagreed, saying that the judge would have completely dismissed the gang charges if he didn’t believe the youths were part of a gang.

“There is no doubt in my mind that he felt this was a gang case,” he said.

The sentencing came after a tense hearing that included emotional pleas for leniency from the victim and his father. “I have already begun to forgive them,” said Thorne, who still bears scars from the attack. “I don’t think they are going to do that again.”

Thorne’s father, Greg, speaking directly to the defendants, urged them to reflect on their crimes and said he would be willing to shake their hands if they from prison emerged changed men.

“We are willing to forgive, but, my God, gentlemen, become men,” he said.