Las Vegas Teens Plead Guilty to Beating Classmate to Death

Four Las Vegas teenagers have pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter in the fatal beating of a classmate, in a case which shocked the local community after the attack was shared on social media.
The teens accepted a plea deal on Tuesday, September 3, which kept them from being tried as adults over the death of Jonathan Lewis Jr. in 2023.
The plea agreement spares them from being tried for second-degree murder, a crime for which they were initially charged in January 2024.
The incident occurred on November 1, 2023, and was recorded on a cellphone video that was circulated widely on social media. The attack, described by the teachers to The Associated Press as a “brutal beatdown,” took place in an alleyway near Rancho High School in Las Vegas over a dispute involving a vape pen and wireless headphones that had reportedly been stolen from a friend of Lewis.
Following the attack, Lewis, 17, was left unconscious and suffered severe head trauma, dying from his injuries six days later.
On the day of the attack, Lewis reportedly accompanied a friend to the alley where the group had agreed to meet after school. According to police, it remains unclear whether Lewis was initially intended to be involved in the fight, the AP reported.
Cellphone footage shows Lewis removing his shirt to prepare for the confrontation before being swarmed by the group. He was pulled to the ground, punched, kicked, and stomped on by at least 10 students, aged 13 to 17.
Lewis was eventually carried back to the school by a student and a passerby. Staff at Rancho High School administered first aid and called 911, but Lewis was placed on life support and succumbed to his injuries days later.
The four teenagers, all of whom were under 18 at the time of the incident, will now be sentenced to incarceration in a juvenile detention center for an undetermined length of time. Under Nevada law, minors tried in the juvenile court system do not face traditional jail or prison sentences. Instead, they are released from custody after completing rehabilitation programs, as Brigid Duffy, director of the juvenile division at the Clark County district attorney’s office, told ABC affiliate Local 10.
Defense attorney Robert Draskovich, who represents one of the teens, said that the plea deal was “a very fair resolution.” However, Lewis’ mother, Mellisa Ready, expressed her frustration with the plea agreement.
“There’s literally no one being held accountable with true punishment for my son’s murder,” Ready told Local 10. “It’s disgusting.”
Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson’s office defended the plea deal in a statement for the AP, saying that it was a well-considered decision given the facts of the case and the potential legal challenges a trial could have posed. The office also emphasized that the juvenile court system is better suited to punish and rehabilitate young defendants.
According to the Prison Policy Initiative, there were around 36,000 people in youth correctional facilities in the U.S. as of March 2023.