Two teenagers get probation for accidental shooting death

Two teenagers who pleaded guilty to felony charges in the inadvertent shooting death of 14-year-old Joie Muth during what was supposed to have been a peace meeting between rival gangs have been given probation for five years.

But 17-year-old Michelle Ogle and 19-year-old Adrian Donacio will have to spend five weeks in the county jail as part of that probation. They also must tell their story each month to high school students in an effort to quell what District Judge Donald Mosley termed the "insideous gang thing."

It was a sentence supported by the victim's mother, Terry Ann Muth, who sobbed in court Wednesday that "the killing has to stop."

Ogle and Joie Muth were friends and on the same side in the February 1996 meeting between rival gangs. Ogle, however, brought a gun and when the peace conference broke down, she pulled the pistol and fired as she fled.

One of the bullets from the .357 magnum hit her friend.

"I know what I did was wrong" Ogle said, as she broke into tears. She was comforted by Terry Ann Muth, who vowed to help Ogle better her life.

"It's so hard. It's a mess," Muth said, telling the judge, "We can save Michelle, she's 17."

Donacio was the one who set the wheels of violence into motion when he pulled a pistol and fired numerous shots during the altercation outside Pittman Elementary School near Torrey Pines Drive and Washington Avenue.

He called his involvement in the incident "the most stupid thing I've done in my life."

Since then, he said, he has completed two years of community college and has plans to become an evangelist.

Although Mosley said a message needs to be sent about gang violence, he questioned, "Do I ruin two more lives to send that message?"

In the end he decided to hand down the long terms of probation with the stiff community service requirements.

Donacio, who pleaded guilty to assault with a deadly weapon, and Ogle, who pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter, were both Western High School students at the time of the incident.

Ogle will be a high school senior in the Fall and will be released from jail before school begins.

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