An 18-year-old man, who two years ago was charged as an adult with murder in the fatal stabbing of another teen in a Huntington Beach park, was convicted today of voluntary manslaughter.
Jesse Taylor Shockey is now scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 22 for the Dec. 21, 2011, slaying.
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Police and prosecutors originally did not give a motive for 19-year-old Dylan James Austin having a knife plunged into his chest at Lake View Park, but the Weekly learned independently that the victim had confronted Shockey because he was upset over graffiti sprayed in his Huntington Beach neighborhood.
Dylan James Austin, 2011 OC Homicide No. 66: Quiet Park, Loud Commotion, Stabbing Death
The official line was then-16-year-old Shockey previously got into argument with friends of Austin at the park and later returned a second time when a verbal argument escalated into the older teen's death.
Shockey was charged at the time with one felony count of murder and a sentencing enhancement for the personal use of a deadly weapon, and he faced a maximum sentence of 26 years to life in state prison.
After about two days of deliberations, the jury in Fullerton found Shockey guilty of the lesser voluntary manslaughter charge, although the sentencing enhancement was found true.
The 18-year-old now faces up to 12 years in prison, Deputy District Attorney Steve McGreevy reportedly told City News Service.
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OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.