{"id":124298,"date":"2026-01-07T23:01:19","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T23:01:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/124298\/"},"modified":"2026-01-07T23:01:19","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T23:01:19","slug":"san-diego-school-shooter-could-walk-free-under-california-youth-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/124298\/","title":{"rendered":"San Diego school shooter could walk free under California youth law"},"content":{"rendered":"

The deranged maniac behind the deadly 2001 San Diego school shooting<\/a> could get cut loose from prison despite a 50-years-to-life sentence \u2013 as the county\u2019s top prosecutor blamed lax state laws.<\/p>\n

Charles \u201cAndy\u201d Williams, who executed two classmates and shot 13 students during a rampage at Santana High School, will be resentenced and transferred to juvenile court because the mass shooter was 15 at the time of the murders.<\/p>\n

That means the killer \u2014 who had whined he was \u201csick of being bullied\u201d \u2014 could be released without parole or a safety review, San Diego County<\/a> District Attorney Summer Stephan said.<\/p>\n

\"SantanaCharles \u201cAndy\u201d Williams could be released from prison, despite a 50-years-to-live sentenced handed down in 2001. SAN DIEGO UNION TRIBUNE\/POOL\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cThis defendant carried out a calculated, cold-blooded attack during which he executed two young students and shot 11 other students and two school officials, forever traumatizing a community,\u201d Stephan said in a statement on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Stephan railed that the deceased victims \u2014 14-year-old Bryan Zuckor and 17-year-old Randy Gordon \u2014 were not given the same opportunities as their killer.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey won\u2019t be released from the grave and returned to their families,\u201d Stephan said. <\/p>\n

\u201cAt some point, our laws must balance the rights of defendants, the rights of victims, and the rights of the community to be safe,\u201d the prosecutor added. \u201cMany school shooters are young, so what message does our legislature want to give them to deter them from carrying out horrific shootings?<\/p>\n

Williams, now 39, petitioned for resentencing under a 2011 law that allows judges to reconsider sentences for youth offenders who are serving life sentences without parole. The DA had argued that the 50-to-life sentence the shooter received was not the same as a life sentence because it would allow for parole opportunities. <\/p>\n

\"StudentsTwo were killed and 11 others injured in the shooting at Santana High School. Getty Images<\/p>\n

The school shooter \u2014 who is now in custody at the California Institution<\/a> for Men in Chino \u2013became eligible for parole in September 2024 and was found to be an \u201cunreasonable risk to public safety,\u201d according to the San Diego Union-Tribune. The board also said it was unclear if Williams understood why he committed the shooting.<\/p>\n

In 2001, Williams stormed the Santana high boys\u2019 bathroom armed with a stolen .22-caliber revolver and gunned down a student inside, then calmly and methodically walked out into the hallway and quad \u2014 randomly shooting anyone he came across.<\/p>\n

The DA\u2019s office has since filed an appeal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The deranged maniac behind the deadly 2001 San Diego school shooting could get cut loose from prison despite…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":124299,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[7,8948,74,76,75,33256,3586],"class_list":["post-124298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-california","tag-parole","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-school-shootings","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124298"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124298\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/124299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}