Appeals court upholds 110-year sentence for teen gang member convicted of attempted murder

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(01-18) 15:38 PST LOS ANGELES -- A state appeals court upheld a 16-year-old gang member's 110-year sentence for three attempted murders Tuesday and said the fact that he will be in prison until he dies doesn't violate the U.S. Supreme Court's ban on life-without-parole terms for juveniles in non-homicide cases.

Rodrigo Caballero was convicted in adult court of shooting at three rival gang members and wounding one in Palmdale (Los Angeles County) in June 2007. He testified that he had been trying to kill them, but his lawyer argued that Caballero, who was diagnosed as schizophrenic and delusional after his arrest, should have been found incompetent to stand trial.

The Second District Court of Appeal in Los Angeles rejected that argument Tuesday, saying Caballero had regained his competency with medication, and also said his sentence did not violate the constitutional standard that the Supreme Court set in a Florida case in May.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/01/18/BA2R1HAT4J.DTL