Girl, 11, Tried For Throwing Rock

An 11-year-old girl arrested on a deadly weapon charge for throwing a rock during a water balloon fight was scheduled to be tried Wednesday after talks between her attorney and prosecutors failed to produce a plea bargain.

Maribel Cuevas was arrested in April for throwing a two-pound rock at a neighborhood boy who had pelted her with a water balloon. The rock gashed the boy's forehead, and the girl spent five days in Fresno's juvenile hall and a month under house arrest after police said she resisted arrest and scratched an officer's arm.

Since then, the girl's behavior and law enforcement's response to it has become water cooler and editorial page staples far from Fresno. The girl's parents joined church leaders and the state chapter of the Rev. Al Sharpton's National Action Network in a vigil last week. They say the felony charge in no way matches her childish crime.

But Fresno's mayor and police chief say Maribel's case was handled appropriately, and that assault with a deadly weapon is the proper charge for an act that might have had fatal consequences.

Lisa Bennett, a legal assistant for defense attorney Richard Beshwate Jr., said last-minute efforts to avert a trial were fruitless. "Even though there may or may not be good offers, having her plead guilty to a crime is not acceptable," Bennett said Tuesday.

As a result, Maribel was scheduled to have a full trial beginning Wednesday morning in the Juvenile Delinquency Division of Fresno Superior Court. A court commissioner who specializes in family law, Kimberly Nystrom-Geist, will preside over the hearing, which was expected to last all day and include about 20 witnesses, Bennett said.

Alvin Harrell, the Fresno County assistant district attorney who supervises juvenile cases, said court rules prohibited him from discussing the case or even acknowledging the trial is happening. But in an unusual move for a case involving a minor, the trial will be open to the public.

Witnesses are expected to include Elijah Vang, the boy who was injured by Maribel and who has acknowledged throwing a water balloon at her; a teenage girl who was in the same yard as Maribel when the altercation took place; police officers; the emergency medical technicians who initially treated the boy; and relatives and neighbors of both children, according to Bennett.

The defense strategy will include showing that Maribel's action was provoked, and that she had been subject to harassment before, Bennett said. "This has occurred more than once so Maribel's reaction may have not been unwarranted," she said.

Maribel maintains she was playing on the sidewalk with her 6-year-old brother on April 29 when Elijah rode by on his bike with a half-dozen neighborhood boys, who splattered them with water balloons.

The girl threw a rock that police later described as "jagged" and measuring 5.5 inches by 3.75 inches and it hit Elijah on the head, opening a gash that required stitches. While she ran to find Elijah's parents, a neighbor called 911.

Elijah's family, which has since moved away, is testifying for the prosecution but is not expected to be a hostile witness for the defense, Bennett said, adding that his parents declined to press charges.

In a statement issued shortly after The Associated Press published a story about the case, Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer defended his department's decision to arrest the girl and seek a felony charge.

"The simple fact is that we have an 11-year-old girl who struck a boy in the head with a jagged-edged, two-pound river rock, that required him to have stitches," Dyer said. "That is a felony, assault with a deadly weapon, and we are very fortunate that that act did not cause a more serious injury, even death."

By Lisa Leff